Home Movie Reviews ‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’ – Review
‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’ – Review

‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’ – Review

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Cinematic maestro George Miller is ready to take audiences back to the heavy-metal action of the Wasteland with Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. This is the must-watch prequel to Miller’s lauded 2015 action masterpiece Mad Max: Fury Road and introduces audiences to the darkest of angels, Furiosa, and it’s an utterly insane watch!

As the world falls, young Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy) is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and into the hands of a Biker Horde led by the Warlord Dementus (Chris Hemsworth). While two Tyrants war for dominance over the Citadel, Furiosa survives many trials as she plots a way back home through the Wasteland.

George Miller is a filmmaker unlike any other, and with a career spanning forty-five years, he’s created some of the most visually audacious, pulse-pounding and utterly moving pieces of cinema ever conceived. Bounding between genres and always seeking out new ideas and filmmaking techniques to experiment with, Miller is a visionary in the truest sense of the word, and audiences are now invited back to the Wasteland in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. As the follow-up to his critical and commercially lauded work on 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road, Furiosa is a piece of narrative storytelling that helps to embolden the history of the Wasteland and gives context and a sense of origin to the living Valkyrie, Furiosa. Miller again utilises action as narrative, and Furiosa delivers on a far grander scope that is pure cinematic spectacle.

Miller and his creative team of fellow maniacs set about to do something broader with the narrative for this picture, and what we are delivered is a grand Odyessy in the purest of mythmaking styles. Drawing influence from the grand mythos of Ancient Greece and Rome, Miller fashions a narrative of survival and becoming, and gives audiences the blood-soaked saga of how Imperator Furiosa became who she is. This is a grand and lively cinematic experience, and it races towards you at high speed, and there ain’t no slowing down. Image and sound are Miller’s north star in bringing this picture to life, and you feel like you are witnessing some furious rock opera come to life before your eyes. With its organic textures and in-your-face action, there’s grit to the events that unfold on screen, which makes for a pure rush for audiences.

Rising British film star Anya Taylor-Joy is stepping into the Wasteland this time around, and she embraces the utter fury of Furiosa as she is thrown into the fray of battle and death that the Wasteland breeds. In a performance that is virtually devoid of dialogue, Taylor-Joy relies heavily on expression and action of movement in her performance as Furiosa, and this is a character that is running on pure instinct. The word best used to describe Taylor-Joy’s performance would most certainly be feral, and there’s an uncontrollable, almost animal-like quality to the seething rage that she brings to the screen. With one goal in mind, escape, Furiosa does all in her power to find her way back to the Green Place of Many Mothers, and there’s not a moment on screen where you don’t buy into Taylor-Joy’s commitment to Furiosa’s only goal. Her performance is one of equal parts bravery and savageness, and she won’t back down from taking her vengeance!

Chris Hemsworth is one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, and now he completely does a 180 with his performance in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. And he’s an utter scene stealer in every sense of the word as the Warlord Dementus. As utterly mad as a cut snake and thoroughly tweaked, Dementus is a despotic ruler of the great Biker Horde, a nomadic gang who roams and pillages the Wasteland of its resources. And his presence is utterly terrifying. Part messiah, part general, all maniac, Hemsworth’s Dementus is a physically imposing and dangerous presence, and his particular interest in Furiosa will entirely shape her life. This is Hemsworth like you’ve never seen him before. There’s absolutely no filter in his presentation of Dementus, and he gives an utter beast of a performance and creates one of the most lively, twisted and psychotic villains ever brought to the cinema screen!

George Miller is a filmmaker who attracts the best of the best when it comes to acting talent, and Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is no exception to this. Two of the film’s key supporting players, Tom Burke and Lachy Hulme, make an impression on audiences with their appearances, and both are rapidly different in their performances. Burke takes on the role of Praetorian Jack, the principal military commander of The Citadel, who instructs Furiosa in the art of ‘road combat’, and he’s an almost prototypical Mad Max character. Hulme, being the chameleon performer that he is, brings to life a younger and more sinister Immortan Joe, Furiosa’s liege lord, turned future enemy, and he’s damn scary in the role. It’s a lot of fun to watch Hulme square off with Hemsworth’s Dementus, and they’re just two bad bastards who will do whatever it takes to control the Wasteland. Returning Mad Max veterans Josh Helman and Nathan Jones return to the Wasteland as Scrotus and Rictus Erectus, the two scummy sons of Immortan Joe, and both are devilishly deranged in their performances.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is an example of pure action overload. George Miller and the entire cast and crew have done everything in their power to deliver some of the most adrenaline-spiking moments ever put on screen. The focus of this action is pure ‘road combat’, and with the film’s origin story, we get to see elements such as the construction of the War Rig and just how these early variants of this mechanical beast were tested on the ravaged outback highways. The most memorable moment in the film is the ‘Stowaway’ chase scene, and Anya Taylor-Joy is thrown headfirst into the carnage of a 15-minute chase scene filled with gunfire, explosions, and some of the most audacious action ever captured on screen. But action for Miller is not just mere spectacle; it has a key part in shaping the character of Furiosa, and these crazy beats will leave you wide-eyed with amazement.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is an opera of utter cinematic madness, and your adrenal gland will be working overtime with this full-on, all-out, shiny and chrome action spectacle. So sit down and buckle up for one hell of a wild rush!

Image: Warner Brothers Pictures