Rating: R | Runtime: 148 minutes
Release Date: May 24th, 2024 (USA)
Studio: Warner Bros.
Director(s): George Miller
Writer(s): George Miller & Nick Lathouris

The question is, do you have it in you to make it epic?

Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy) lives. We know this because George Miller’s return to the Wasteland, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, is a prequel to his Oscar-nominated masterpiece Mad Max: Fury Road. The stakes surrounding her survival are therefore non-existent. So, Miller and co-writer Nick Lathouris must find a different hook. And considering we know Furiosa was taken from the “Green Place” as a child and desperate to return, said hook arrives via the obvious question: Who took her?

It cannot be Immortan Joe (played by Lachy Hulme due to Hugh Keays-Byrne’s death in 2020). Furiosa wouldn’t have stayed at The Citadel as long as she had if he was the man responsible for ruining her childhood. It must be someone else. Someone who would ultimately bring her to Joe and set off the series of events that led her to helping emancipate his “wives.” And if Taylor-Joy is going to play the role with a similarly severe stoicism as Charlize Theron, we need a character with a contrast of crazed insanity. Enter Dementus (Chris Hemsworth), a villain worthy of a vendetta great enough to bring kingdoms crumbling down.

The film is thus simple in construction. Furiosa is kidnapped to serve under Dementus’ wing because he wants nothing more than to rule with bountiful glory—something he can achieve if she’s willing to tell him where she’s from so he can conquer it. And if she refuses, well, he’ll seek to acquire the next best thing: The Citadel. Except, of course, that his crazy is no match for actual strategy. Immortan Joe will not let his kingdom be stolen and, if you’ve been paying attention, there’s no better way to get in his good graces enough to steal his “wives” then to ensure it doesn’t. So, Dementus throws his grenade into the Wasteland ecosystem, Joe looks to save it from him, and Furiosa seeks retribution.

Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke) and History Man (George Shevtsov) are also involved—more for exposition than true narrative propulsion. The former is a means for which Furiosa can escape her chains yet remain working at her prison while the latter presents a welcome voice of reason amidst the chaos. They add to the flavor of what Miller has wrought even if neither earns enough screen-time or purpose beyond steppingstones for Furiosa’s ascension to matter. More bodies to be used and/or sacrificed. Similar to the many acolytes surrounding Dementus. They’re gross, entertaining, and ready to die.

I will say this about those cronies, however. If you have the impulse to let actors play multiple roles (Hulme also plays Rizzdale Pell, Dementus’ right-hand man), don’t do it as obviously as with Elsa Pataky. Whereas one of Hulme’s characters has his face covered below the eyes, both of Pataky’s are clearly visible despite some gruesome prosthetics. And since her first role (Vuvalini General) is a protector of the “Green Place,” watching her “infiltrate” Dementus’ gang shortly after had me assuming heroics were on the horizon. Except they weren’t. Mr. Norton (her other role) is just a henchman. So, hire someone else for one of them?

But I digress. Where the revenge tale of Furiosa surviving to escape and then surviving to kill is concerned, Furiosa is very good. Perhaps a bit overlong with a not-quite love story trying to justify a good chunk of that runtime when its inclusion is really just to get her behind the war-rig’s wheel and somewhat shallow in the fact that the politics of the situation are flimsy at best to hold her trajectory up, the action and production remain top-notch. It’s not as memorable as Fury Road, but it’s a welcome expansion upon its lore, nonetheless. Because despite re-watching that 2015 film before pressing play on this one, Furiosa’s greatest success is making me want to watch Fury Road again.

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Anya Taylor-Joy in FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA; courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures.