The Mad Max franchise, created by George Miller, is a series of post-apocalyptic action films that began with “Mad Max” in 1979, starring Mel Gibson. The series is known for its high-octane chases, dystopian landscapes, and innovative stunts. “Mad Max: Fury Road” (2015) introduced the character Furiosa, portrayed by Charlize Theron, a fierce warrior seeking redemption and freedom. Furiosa Starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is a 2024 post-apocalyptic action-adventure film that serves as both a spin-off and prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road. The movie follows a young Furiosa, abducted from her homeland, as she navigates a battle between warring factions in a desolate world.   Furiosa Review The technical achievements of many modern sequels, spinoffs, and reboots vastly outstrip those that came before. No series of films better exemplifies this than the Alien franchise. Yet, with budgets that dwarf those of the originals by a hundred million dollars (even after they are adjusted for inflation), Prometheus, Alien vs. Predator, and the like are utterly generic, with characters no one remembers and plotlines better forgotten. Conversely, Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley remains legendary nearly fifty years after the release of the original Alien. The reasons for this are enough to fill pages. Suffice it to say that films like Alien, Predator, and Mad Max were creative pieces filled with compelling characters about whose well-being audiences cared and original villains and environments that piqued the imagination. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for most of their grandchildren. 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road, while an imperfect film that focused far too little on its titular character, was unique in modern sequels in that it built on and even improved on many aspects of the original. Those who watched were treated to some of the most exciting and viscerally provocative visuals since the first Matrix. However, the charismatic performances and easy chemistry of its central trio of characters are what kept the audience grounded and engaged with the relentless high-octane action. Tom Hardy, who played Mad Max, could make a C-SPAN transcript seem captivating, and Academy Award winner Charlize Theron is no slouch. However, Nicholas Hoult’s full-bodied transformation into a zealot-turned-traitor whose naivety and relative innocence were the surprising emotional glue for the picture. Despite its over-the-top action and relentless explosions, audiences found themselves invested in the main trio and their flight from tyranny, even if the dialogue was minimal and the plot thinner than mountain air. Fast forward to today. Taking audiences from her childhood all the way to the events that initiated Fury Road, Furiosa is less compelling than even the narrative acid trip that was Beyond Thunderdome (at least that gave us Master Blaster). This is largely thanks to director George Miller’s excruciatingly slow pacing and the film’s bloated 5 Act structure. Its two prologues (yes, there are two) are each longer than a Catholic Easter Vigil and provide such needless and redundant info that it’s difficult not to drift to your favorite app while watching. The frustration is that Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga has a number of interesting ideas and plot points that are maddeningly underdeveloped and used more as excuses to move the action along and to get characters to where they need to be than as organic storytelling components. For instance, three strongholds are within driving distance of one another in the Wasteland, each possessing something the other needs to survive. When Chris Hemsworth’s Dr. Dementus gains control over one of them, it throws their balanced symbiosis into chaos… at least that’s what we are told. Really, it’s just an excuse to keep him out of the way and in one place long enough for Furiosa to grow up and still know where he is when it’s time for his part in her story to continue. With all of this, the film’s almost crippling weakness is its lead character. Ostensibly, Furiosa would like to get revenge on those who caused her pain at an early age, but she seemingly has no plan or will to act until a lifetime of happenstance places her within striking distance of those who wronged her. Instead, she’s a virtual non-entity for much of the film. When she is finally arbitrarily promoted from Faceless Nobody who’s excellent at everything to Ill-defined Somebody who’s excellent at everything because it says that it’s time in the script, audiences will likely not care. None of this is helped by the character’s almost complete silence throughout, nor the way in which she expresses her pain. Fury Road was an almost tactile experience that tapped into the primal core of every man, whereas Furiosa’s silent weeping sucks the energy out of scenes. In a recent interview, Miller patted himself on the back while informing a reporter that the two actresses who play Furiosa have only 30 lines between the two of them in this two-and-a-half-hour movie. If those she interacted with were mildly interesting characters who filled the silence, or the action leading up to her promotion and final showdown were meaningful, this wouldn’t be such a big deal, but except for Chris Hemsworth’s Dementus (who is painfully absent for three-fifths of the film), there is no one who says or does anything that anyone cares about. There’s an attempt to introduce a love interest for Furiosa, but he and Taylor-Joy have as much chemistry as a broken Bunsen burner, and he comes off as a very poor man’s Mad Max. While competently filmed, the action seems like mostly perfunctory filler that establishes much of what was already and far more masterfully established in Fury Road. Furthermore, most of it feels redundant, repetitive, and recycled from both previous scenes and its predecessor (some of it actually is from Fury Road). Finally, there are several instances when large panning establishing shots and even many action pieces don’t entirely pass the CGI muster (I saw it in an XD theater. It could be that other cinematic experiences do a better job of hiding these imperfections.). Furiosa gets two things very right. The first is its unrelenting attention to detail. Every feature of the design feels authentically post-apocalyptic and organic to its surroundings, and the overall aesthetic is true to the previous entries. The second is Hemsworth. He swings for the rafters in every scene and is utterly unrecognizable as twisted Dr. Dementus. If you’re a Mad Max junkie, or you just want to watch some $#!t blow up, Furiosa might be worth a viewing, but if you’re not interested in an early draft of Fury Road that’s 45 minutes too long, maybe wait until it’s streaming.   WOKE ELEMENTS Mixed Chicks In Flicks There’s a very tiny amount of Hollywood-mandated diversity that makes very little sense based on the world of the film. It’s annoying, not because of the diversity, but because it feels out of place and artificial. However, I promise it is very little – just enough to make the filmmakers feel good about themselves. The opening scene shows a small society almost entirely made up of spindly armed supermodel women who also happen to be Amazonian-like warriors. However, the film never makes anyone into a “girl boss” that’s the physical match of men, much larger and stronger than them. Rather, they are excellent marksmen and riders (both of horses and motorcycles) and quick on their feet. This is another very brief sequence and almost not worth mentioning.