[Rating: Minor Rock Fist Up]
Nine years ago, director George Miller reconfigured his entire post apocalyptic Australian hellscape into one of the greatest films of the decade, Mad Max: Fury Road. All this time later, he’s returned back to that world, this time to explore the life of the character Furiosa who became a pop culture phenomenon and bonafide super heroine in her own right. Her story, told in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is a long winded journey of a woman broken by the men around her, determined to fulfill her quest to return home and survive the elements.
The story begins with a young Furiosa (Alyla Browne) who is taken from her abundant homeland, across the wastelands of sand and sun. She is given to Dr. Dementus (Chris Hemsworth) who wants to know where this girl has come from, in the hopes of finding her home to eventually conquer. Hot on the trail is Furiosa’s mother Mary (Charlee Fraser) who will do anything and kill anyone who stands between her and her daughter. Furiosa is able to escape Dementus and his band of gang members, but is quickly rediscovered and made a prisoner. Soon, in his mad hungry power to control what little there is left of an oasis, Dementus sells Furiosa to Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme) to be a breeder in his own compound. Furiosa again escapes, this time hiding herself as a boy in order to work within the confines of the Citadel.
Flash forward to an older Furiosa (Anya Taylor Joy) working on rigs being sent to retrieve gasoline. Along with Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke), Furiosa makes a name for herself amongst one of the most bad-ass protectors of the oil tankers. However, things aren’t always cut and dry for her. When Dementus returns, still seeking out any way he can to conquer the Citadel, Furiosa and Jack have to make a decision fast, or else fall to the madness of the doctor.
When I first saw Fury Road in 2015, I was gobsmacked! I had never seen anything like it! In fact, I wasn’t even a fan of the original Mad Max trilogy. To know that Furiosa, who ended up being one of the best things about Fury Road, got her own story, was one I had been waiting for. And in the end, I’m left with… just sticking with Fury Road.
Look, there’s nothing wrong with Furiosa for the most part. It goes nearly an hour or mostly Hemsworth (who by the way, is wonderful in this) and a mute Furiosa wandering the wastelands before anything too significant happens. Once stuff does start happening, it’s nothing to the level of the 2015 sequel. While that was a constant action packed epic, Furiosa slows down the action each scene at a time and doesn’t surprise its audience one bit. This is a far better looking sand related movie than another sand related movie released earlier this year, but even that only goes so far amongst the larger issue of not a lot happening and then everything happening.
So overall, I’m left very mixed on the epic story of Furiosa. While she herself is an interesting character, her story is one that is very long and sluggish, I yearned for Miller’s fast paced epic-ness that was Fury Road.
Christian Ramos is a classic film fan, having had the dream to host Turner Classic Movies for years now. He also has a large amount of Oscar trivia in his head, remembers dressing as Groucho Marx one Halloween, and cherishes the moment Julianne Moore liked his tweet.
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