FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA Reviewed by GREG KING
Director: George Miller
Stars: Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Burke, Lachy Hulme, John Howard, Charlee Fraser, Alyla Browne, Nathan Jones, Josh Helman, Angus Samson, Elsa Pataky, Daniel Webber, David Field, Guy Spence, Robert Jones, Matuse, Tim Rogers, Richard Norton.
George Miller’s 2015 film Fury Road was, arguably, the best film in the dystopian Mad Max series that began 45 years ago in 1979, and it is easily one of the best out and out action films of the past decade. That film starred Oscar winner Charlize Theron as a character named Furiosa, who drove an armoured war rig through a hostile wasteland to trade goods for ammunition and petrol, with armed gangs in pursuit.
This latest film from director George Miller serves as a direct prequel to Fury Road and it spans some fifteen years. Miller and his co-writer Nic Lathouris give us a detailed and punishing backstory to Furiosa, charting her story from vulnerable adolescent to her reinvention as a fearsome warrior with a mechanical left arm. Here Anya Taylor-Joy (from tv series Peaky Blinders, etc) steps into the role of the younger Furiosa but she brings a feisty quality to the physically punishing role.
The film opens with the young adolescent Furiosa (played by Alyla Browne) picking fruit in an orchard in the Green Place of Many Mothers, a lush place of abundance that is a peaceful and isolated refuge for a tribe. She spots a gang of bikies who intrude on this oasis, and she sabotages their vehicles. But she is caught and taken to the encampment of Dementus (Chris Hemsworth), a messianic warlord who wants to rule this desolate world. Furiosa’s mother Mary (former model Charlee Fraser, recently seen in the Sydney-shot romcom Anyone But You) sets out on a mission to rescue her. But her attempt ends badly and Furiosa is forced to watch as Dementus kills her in horrible fashion. Furiosa becomes Dementus’ prisoner. She manages to escape his clutches eventually and sets out on a mission of vengeance intent on destroying Dementus.
Her mission sees her working as a mechanic in the Citadel, one of the many fortresses that inhabit this wasteland, and they are at war with Dementus and his hordes. Alliances between the different wasteland communities are fragile and keep shifting. Furiosa accompanies Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke, from the tv series Strike, etc) a truck driver who drives the war rig along the highway between the various fortresses, and he becomes something of a mentor to her.
The film takes a while to get going, but once the action starts the pace is as fast and furious as Fury Road. However, as the white skinned “war boys” again strut their stuff during the highway pursuit, some of the action beats mimic the action of that earlier film. Some of the violence is unpleasant and unnecessarily sadistic and disturbing in nature. And with an overly generous run time of 148-minutes this is the longest film in the series, but it could have been cut by about 20 minutes.
Furiosa is a character of few words, but Taylor-Joy is convincing and acquits herself well in the physical role. Hemsworth plays the villainous Dementus with a broad ocker accent, bluster and a loony messianic charm that comes across as more comical than menacing as he rides around the desert on his motorbike chariot. Burke has a strong presence as Praetorian Jack whose appearance reminds audiences of the earlier incarnations of Mad Max. Lachy Hulme takes over the role of Immortan Joe, the leader of the Citadel, from the late Hugh Keayes-Byrne, while John Howard (from tv series All Saints, etc) reprises his role of the grotesque People Eater. Other characters have strange even risible names such Scrotus and Rictus Erectus.
Miller gives us plenty of superbly staged action sequences, and the special effects and stunt work are superb. But, unlike many of today’s blockbuster action movies with their multi-million dollar budgets and overdose of CGI effects, Miller prefers to use practical effects where possible, which makes for a more spectacular movie. One of the highlights is the elaborately staged destruction of Bullettown, one of the many wasteland fortresses. The setting is pretty bleak and the desert location suits the tone of the material which is set in a post-apocalyptic world. The film was shot on location around Broken Hill, and the red sands provide the perfect setting. AACTA award winning cinematographer Simon Duggan (The Great Gatsby, etc) has done a superb job bathing the film in an orange hue, while giving us some breathtaking imagery.
Furiosa demands to be seen on a big screen with big sound to appreciate the scope of Miller’s vision.
★★★☆
