And she will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and Furiosa anger ....
If you wondered (as I did) how Charlize Theron’s Imperator Furiosa from the 2015 action classic “Mad Max: Fury Road” came to become that one-armed, shaven-head, endlessly resourceful, and utterly formidable badass warrior/crusader with the thousand-mile stare, that question is answered with authority in the pedal-to-the-floor “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.”
Though this direct prequel can’t match the sheer creative audacity and heavy metal awesomeness of “Fury Road” — which was nominated for 10 Academy Awards and won six and is widely considered to be one of the all-time great action movies — it’s still a rousing and thunderous and fiery dystopian thrill ride that only occasionally pauses to take a breather over a 2 hour and 28 minute run time. (It’s the longest of the five “Mad Max” movies, but never feels bloated or redundant.)
Filmed in Australia and bursting with creativity, from Miller’s nearly unmatchable directorial style to the orange-hued, desert wasteland cinematography by Simon Duggan to the crackling good stunt work to the impressive production design, editing, makeup and costuming, “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” is the very definition of that cliché about how some movies should be seen on the biggest screen possible, with the volume cranked up so loud you become completely immersed in its world.
In a brilliantly rendered opening sequence, the preteen Furiosa (Alyla Browne, who looks so much like a mini-Anya Taylor-Joy that it’s startling) is foraging for ripe fruit in a forest just outside the idyllic “Green Place” community when she is snatched up by a gang of ruthless bikers. Furiosa’s mother (Charlee Fraser, riveting in a relatively brief appearance), a skilled and determined warrior, takes up pursuit on horseback and nearly pulls off a seemingly impossible rescue. But when all is said and bludgeoned, Furiosa is held captive, first by the leader of those bikers, the grandiose and cutthroat Warlord Dementus (Chris Hemsworth, hamming it up under a prosthetic nose), and then essentially traded off to the grotesque Immortan Joe (with Lachy Hulme taking over the role that was played by Hugh Keays-Byrne in “Fury Road”).
What amounts to the slave trading of young Furiosa, with the clear implications of how she will be assaulted once she’s a bit older, is deeply unsettling.
The villains in this film, including Immortan Joe’s psychopathic sons Rictus Erectus (Nathan Jones) and Scrotus (Josh Helman), and geez those names, are vile and irredeemable. Yes, Dementus has a tragic back story of his own — he literally wears a teddy bear on his chest as a reminder of the children he’s lost — but he has long ago forfeited anything resembling humanity and has become a sadistic maniac hell bent on making everyone in the world share in his misery.
After a bit of plot contrivance that stretches credulity but allows Furiosa to gain some semblance of freedom, we’re at approximately the one-hour mark when Anya Taylor-Joy takes over the role, her wide eyes blazing with an intensity that has us instantly believing that, yes, this is our Furiosa. The story gets a little bogged down with all the bargaining and negotiating and power grabs between Dementus and Immortan Joe, but the world-building on display is amazing, as Furiosa’s journey (which is divided into five chapters with somewhat ponderous titles such as “The Pole of Inaccessibility”) stops at the three main outposts of the wasteland: the Citadel, controlled by Immortan Joe and his army of War Boys; Gas Town; and Bullet Farm.
After an incredible and extended mid-movie action sequence involving all sorts of creative gadgetry employed by combatants on both side, Furiosa forms an alliance with the veteran road warrior Praetorian Jack (an excellent Tom Burke), who mentors Furiosa for a brief time, even showing her how to don that face paint that makes her look like a cross between 2010s Lady Gaga and a Raider Nation fan.
For the briefest of moments, it even appears as if there could be a romance between Furiosa and Praetorian Jack, with Furiosa quietly asking Jack to accompany her on her quest to return home. Alas, Dementus and Immortan Joe and a nearly endless supply chain of disposable secondary villains have other plans for this rebellious duo.
With a minimum of dialogue, Anya Taylor-Joy delivers a commanding performance as Furiosa, as the story inches us closer and closer to the events of “Fury Road.” As a girl and as a young woman, Furiosa has been through hell and back — and we know the path is only going to get rockier and bloodier in the time to come.
