Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
There are two great follies to modern franchises that have long bothered me: first, that everything successful needs to be a franchise (some movies are great as one and done); and second, that a franchise must be led by the same characters. Audiences have been so conditioned that the latter is true that we get franchises which tie themselves in knots trying to stay connected to what the audience loved about the original that it loses all meaning. (The “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Star Wars” franchises are, arguably, the biggest modern offenders.) That is part of what makes George Miller’s reinvention of his Wasteland series so impressive; he’s showing that those rules of franchise filmmaking don’t need to be true for the franchise to remain relevant.
The more one thinks about 2015’s “Mad Max: Fury Road,” the more you wonder if the film even needed Max Rockatansky in it to begin with. This is nothing against Tom Hardy’s performance of the character, but the performance most people came away thinking about was Charlize Theron’s as Furiosa, the warrior woman whose scheme against Immortan Joe drove the narrative, and carnage, in the film. In watching “Furiosa,” it occurred to me that the genius part of Miller’s world-building is that it revolves around the idea that the world can push someone to the brink of sanity, that corruption will always rear is disgusting head, but the strongest endure because they hold on to their moral compass. It was true with Rockatansky in the films starring Mel Gibson (and one can’t help but wonder if, had Gibson not been a rising star at the time, Miller might have pivoted away from the character fully then), and Hardy’s performance, and it’s true with Theron and now, Anya Taylor-Joy as Furiosa. The franchise is Miller’s post-apocalyptic vision of a corrupt world, not one character.
“Furiosa” is a prequel to “Fury Road,” as we see Furiosa as a child playing in the “Green Place” she was trying to take Immortan Joe’s wives to in that film, only this time, it is green, with fruit, water and land to farm on. A headstrong young woman, she sees men on motorcycles in the forest, but is taken when she tries to disable their bikes. Her mother (played by Charlee Fraser) takes chase, but is unable to save her before she is taken to Dementus (Chris Hemsworth), the warlord leader of the Biker Horde. It’s not long before the mother is dead, and Furiosa, now staying silent, is held by Dementus until years later, when he runs afoul with Immortan Joe (played here by Lachy Hulme). Furiosa finds herself then traded to Joe, but is able to hide herself as a boy for years before she grows older, and makes herself an important part of the war rig, driven- at the time- by Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke). The day of vengeance is on its way.
There are many prequels that struggle because they feel like a checklist towards events we’re already aware of. In their script for “Furiosa,” Miller and co-writer Nick Lathouris find themselves falling into some of the tendencies that frustrate with prequels; here, we get a shot of what is obviously intended to be Mad Max, and much of the film- especially with Immortan Joe- feels like it’s simply building up to “Fury Road,” which it does in a way not seen since “Rogue One.” This is where the film’s 148-minute running time starts to feel labored as a viewer, although I cannot say that the film gets dull. That is because Miller understands how to keep these films moving like a bullet. From the opening scene to the last frame, the story is always on the run. Action is where this franchise is most at home, and few craft action sequences quite like Miller. From the opening chase to Furiosa’s “stowaway” scene on the war rig to a trap laid by Dementus, the action- goosed by another terrific score by Tom Holkenborg, shot by Simon Duggan with clarity and chaos, and edited together by Eliot Knapman and Margaret Sixel- is electrifying to watch.
Where “Furiosa” delivers most especially is in the performances. Hemsworth is barely recognizable as Dementus, but his wicked energy is familiar from his MCU days as the God of Thunder. But Taylor-Joy carries the film. I don’t know that we understand the character of Furiosa any more than we did after “Fury Road,” but here she is driven to a similar place that Max Rockatansky was in the original “Mad Max,” and seeing how she moves through it is one of the great rushes in modern action cinema. Miller understands what his Wasteland should be for its characters, and for the audience. He delivers in spades.
