FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA
THREE STARS The origins story of renegade warrior Furiosa in the years before she met Mad Max.
DRAMA AUSTRALIA English #FURIOSA
Starring Chris Hemsworth, Ana Taylor-Joy
It can’t be said that George Miller is subtle. Take his characters from the Maxverse (yes, that’s now a thing) where the naming convention is pretty straightforward: Mad Max was mad, The People Eater is a cannibal, Toe Jam needs to wash more and Furiosa? Well, she’s rather angry. By extension the entire Mad Max saga has always been painted in primary colours. Subtlety, argues ‘Mastermind’ Miller, is for other filmmakers.
Thus this fifth instalment, like those that came before, is heavy on spectacle that’s been turbocharged with narrative shorthand as straightforward as an outback signpost. By simplifying the storytelling, there’s more time for chasing, yelling, explosions, fighting, screaming, more screaming, more fighting, more explosions, more yelling and, well, more chasing. In FURIOSA, that action is framed around an origins yarn ending where the previous entry, FURY ROAD, began. Ana Taylor-Joy is a marginally younger Furiosa who will hand over this revenge tale doused in anger mis-management to Charleze Theron. But first, who is she and why did she get to be so furious?
Freud would have loved this confection about a young girl is snatched from the Green Place Of Many Mothers, a secret oasis amid the devastation that is future Australia. Her mother gives chase but is caught and executed by Dr Dementus (Chris Hemsworth), leader of the Biker Hoarde and the girl becomes his prisoner. Years pass, there’s battle with The Citadel, a takeover of Gastown and the destruction of The Bullet Farm. There’s chasing, yelling, explosions, fighting, screaming etc., an arm is cut off but through it all, Furiosa never forgets her mother, and the man that killed her.
You might think there’s room amid the mayhem for some exploration of the damage wrought upon stolen generations or the evils of authoritarianism, even a plunge into the binding relationship between mother and daughter, but Miller keeps to the basics. There’s no time to get meaningful when there is dazzling metal machinery to blow up. Of course it was never intended otherwise and to that end FURIOSA delivers. The action scenes are thrillingly staged, binary morality is uncomplicated and the production looks every bit a Mad Max film.
Yet it’s also a much more bloated experience than FURY ROAD which was more Miller, much more direct. Whenever the story veers toward the dramatic, or, gasp, romantic, the gears grind, the wheel slips and we’re left waiting for the next adrenalin charge across the Wastelands. Fortunately Taylor-Joy is there to pull it back in line. She’s a seriously good action heroine and a very welcome addition to the Maxverse (that word again). Her dark brooding also helps neutralise Hemsworth’s borderline scene-stealing presence, and extinguish any lightness he generates.
So while FURIOSA is not the best MAD MAX (that distinction goes to the first or last film - discuss), it is still a medium-octane ride that is entertaining, exciting and once in a while, awe-inspiring. Just don’t expect any subtlety.
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