If this review were a trial, we'd begin with stipulations, agreements that we can accept (or should) without argument.
1. Few, if any, filmmakers are as skilled at creating propulsive action as George Miller, who offers some of the best bone-crushing, metal-bending sequences ever brought to the big screen.
2. Not many filmmakers are as committed to harsh truths as Miller. When it comes to post-apocalyptic life, brutality reigns.
3. In catastrophically depleted environments, competition for resources feeds cruel compulsions to dominate.
I begin this way because Miller has created four Mad Max movies that have offered sustained thrills while helping to redefine post-apocalyptic cinema.
You can bet that Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Miller's latest and a prequel to the widely acclaimed Mad Max Road Fury, will deliver the goods as Miller plunges into a forbidding hellscape where sentiment is as scarce as good grooming.
Amid the rubble and mayhem, Miller also has insisted that his movies offer the kind of hyper fun that results from wowed appreciation of chases, crashes, fights, and collisions delivered at breakneck speeds.
So where am I going with all this? What's my verdict on Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, the story of a girl who matures into the teenager who'll become the warrior woman played by Charlize Theron in Fury Road?
I saw Furiosa in IMAX at an evening screening after having awakened in Virginia at 5 a.m. EDT for a return flight to Denver. I was tired and jet-lagged, but my eyelids never drooped. A thudding persistent score, the ominous sound of a truck horn, and the roar of motorcycle engines enliven the forbidding landscapes Miller creates so well.
And yet, I'd be remiss if I didn't say that some of the thrill is gone. Ditto for the exhilarating sense of discovery that Road Warrior initially brought. Don't take this as a pan, I said "some" of the thrill -- not all of it.
Furiosa begins with Alyla Browne playing Furiosa as a child who is taken from one of the last remaining flourishing spots on Earth, an Edenic green spot. After marauders capture Furiosa, her mother mother (Charlee Fraser) rides a horse and then a motorcycle to the rescue. Mom's efforts go awry -- but not without giving the movie a gripping prologue.
When the story begins in earnest, Furiosa has been taken prisoner by Dementus (Chris Hemsworth), a ruthless warlord who lost his family and, as a consequence, decided that nothing but merciless violence will conquer his grief. Hemsworth seems to have fun with an outsized role, tempering Dementus's casually expressed sadism with humor.
The movie eventually focuses on Furiosa's development. She starts as a crafty child devoted to keeping her green homeland free and hidden from those who would exploit it. She evolves into a warrior determined to avenge the early-film death of her mother at the hands of Dementus.
As part of her development, Furiosa -- now played by Anya Taylor-Joy -- also becomes the pupil of a skilled driver who serves as a mentor (Tom Burke). The two might have made a great team for an entire movie instead of enriching one episode among many.
Furiosa's story takes place against the backdrop of a brewing war between the forces of Dementus and those of Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme).
Immortan Joe, you'll recall from the previous movie, presides over the Citadel, a fortress built into a cliff. The Citadel dispenses water to the rude and scoffing multitudes, the various tribes that roam this diminished world.
Taylor-Joy may not be as physically imposing as Theron, but she brings intensity to a role in which she speaks little, at times posing as a wily young man to escape the fate of young women destined to be held in a harem Immortan Joe uses for breeding purposes.
No point recounting all the action, except to note that a highlight includes an attack on a speeding silver semi-truck by parachute-wearing warriors. Dementus rides in a chariot drawn by three motorcycles. A variety of jerry-rigged vehicles revive the junkyard chic that has been a Mad Max staple.
Some of the character names clue you into the nature of those who populate Miller's expansive desert environment: The People Eater, Organic Mechanic, Rictus Erectus, and Vulture. I had to consult the credits to catch all of these names, but it doesn't matter; it's their fierce looks that count.
I wish my enthusiasm for Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga weren't tempered by the sense that the movie -- which includes chapter headings -- didn't always display the brisk ingenuity that audiences discovered in Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981) back when Mel Gibson, the original Mad Max, had yet to become a divisive figure.
But if Furiosa has fallen off a bit, it hasn't broken into shards. Miller's skill and vision keep familiarity from breeding contempt -- even if we don't always invest in the fate of this teeming screenful of characters, desperate souls for whom good will isn't even a vague memory.
Most of Furiosa takes place on arid terrain its characters call the Wasteland. For them, the name fits. For Miller, it's territory he still rules.
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