Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga: Gritty with a capital G

Rob Ryan

⭐⭐⭐⭐

The world presented in George Miller's Mad Max Universe is one of overpowering nihilism and complete hopelessness if you takeaway the action, the vehicles and all of the colourful but barbaric characters scavenging for the last of the earths resources in order to get back what little power they have, a thought I had when watching this was not only admiring the technical expertise but thinking about how much willpower, strength and agility one would have to build when all is seemingly lost in the face of a nuclear holocaust and ecological and environmental collapse which at times it feels like we feel like on a trajectory path to that very future and when it comes, what will be the next thing that will keep you going day by day? what else is there to live for? I understand these are concepts explored in many other pieces of media but Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga properly explores this world in thorough and detailed way that it gave my mind much substance to chew on beyond admiring the stunts, sets, and special/visual effects.

The film is the origin story of the character played by Charlize Theron in Mad Max Fury Road (2015) we see her out in the Australian outback (also known as The Wasteland) which in the film's universe seems to be the only climate left on earth that's barley liveable, the film opens with her as a child (Alyla Browne) where she and her family live in one of the few remaining places that contain any sort of greenery when she's kidnapped by agents of Dementus (Chris Hemsworth being the most Australian he's ever been) a leader of a army of barbaric scavengers. They take her as evidence of a place where they can steal the food and resources, but her mother (Charlie Fraser) has made the message to her loud and clear, to never speak of the green place and kill anyone who would tell of such a place, as a result Furiosa remains mute for most of her childhood with the only hint of the location home being a map written on her arm.

After her mother is killed trying to rescue her, she's kept their prisoner until they find a citadel run by Immortan Joe (Lacy Hulme) the villain in Fury Road. Dementus tries to stage an uprising by the poor citizens but the citadel is heavily and strategically defended, so Dementus uses their oil supply which they get regular deliveries off as a bargaining tool to form an alliance with Joe with the few exceptions being he takes Furiosa to become one of his brides. She escapes and disguises as a worker and evades the guards discovering her true identity while also planning her inevitable revenge on Dementus.

Young Furiosa grows up to be Anya Taylor Joy who is a worthy successor to Charlize Theron and after a decade of performing in a series of great dramatic movies, she finally comes to her own as a fully fledged action lead. A stoic and uncompromising portrayal and the complete opposite of of Chris Hemsworth completely over the top and completely rambunctious portrayal of a villain who's actions would be completely horrific to watch if Hemsworth wasn't so obviously having the time of his life.

The world building is very well realised, especially once you are introduced with these two opposing factions who despise each other for holding back their desire for absolute power. From the feudalistic society of Joe to Dementus completely rouge and vulgarian way of living. What happens when these are the only two options you have when your only options to live a full life is at the hands of these equality evil and morally bankrupt characters? Furiosa at one point is given a reality check after a long action scene protecting a truck full of vegetables by a man named Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke) who tells her that the only other places left are either the town where all the oil is pumped and the citadel who are the beneficiaries of said oil. He is of course not entirely right, Furiosa is living day by day in the hopes of finding that place she calls home, something she later reveals to this man thus regaining what little hope he has left. In it's own unique way without ever falling into pretentiousness, the film is a bitter sweet tale of how hope can be the only thing that can keep a person going if not greed and for living on the edge.

Without spoiling the film also evolves beyond a typical revenge tale and instead towards the end shows how you can turn revenge into something positive, something that doesn't reduce you to feeling empty once that quest for vengeance is complete, it would be too easy to just capture and kill the man who did the bad deed, how about have him suffer and evolve something positive and bennifical for the earth at the same time? (You will have to watch the film to find out what I mean. :) )

But enough about that! How about the action? As I imagine those going to see it will be wanting to see if this will be the next Fury Road. There's a reason I've only ever written about the themes and plot of the movie as Furiosa is purely about plot and narrative unlike Fury Road which was a balls to the wall chase movie. People wanting to see this for the action maybe in some way disappointed in this movie for not exactly being as relentless as Fury Road as well as the fact that the action does incorporate some CGI which admittedly does look obvious in the early set pieces, with that said, every set piece is extremity impressive as George Miller is very much is keeping old school action filmmaking alive and when you have this much compelling story inbetween, it only makes it that much more exciting to watch. Especially when you see Joe's minions work against extreme injury trying to get the mechanism of the truck to function while being met with certain death from opposing factions wanting a piece of the cargo, which only fulled my interest as to how anyone can live and have the brain power to work with death and destruction hitting you at every corner.

The film can risk wearing itself out by the end and it does feel like there's an extra epilogue missing but Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is a smart, subtly presented, thematically compelling action piece that is engaging for both fans and non fans of the franchise. I think even if you haven't seen any of the movies I think this film still very much has a lot you can sink your teeth into.