‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)

Directed by George Miller

George Miller heard you say that “Mad Max: Fury Road” was the ultimate dude movie, and he thought I can do better. He may not have quite one-upped himself with this summer’s “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” but he comes darn close.

When we meet Charlize Theron’s Furiosa in “Fury Road,” she’s a one-armed warrior near the end of her rope. Desperation has set in. How she got there was a story filled with possibilities. At the start of this prequel, Furiosa is a young girl (Alyla Browne) ripped away from her utopian life in the wasteland’s most fertile valley. Once Dementus (Chris Hemsworth)—the leader of a large band of scavengers—hears about Furiosa’s land of abundance, he drags her across Australia in search for the homeland she refuses to give up. That’s how he stumbles upon the Citadel and finds himself in a turf war with Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme). While the two men fight over resources and over Furiosa, the young girl grows into a capable fighter (Anya Taylor-Joy) who counts the days until she can strike it on her own.

Like “Fury Road,” “Furiosa” has some of the jankiest, gnarliest looking guys you’ve ever seen, and then a cast full of supermodel actresses. Even hunky Chris Hemsworth is sporting an overgrown beard, a beakish prosthetic nose (but one that looks, even in close-ups, better than Bradley Cooper’s in “Maestro”), and a ridiculous voice (the accent is his, but the octave sure isn’t) that all make his antagonist the movie’s comic relief. Hemsworth revels in the villainous role. I was afraid I’d only see Thor, but there was no need to worry. Hemsworth’s star power has no pull in the wasteland. Another great asset is Tom Burke, in a smaller role as Praetorian Jack, who pilots the war rig that carries supplies to and from the Citadel. His lengthiest scene, a road war that sees scavengers try to come for his truck full of produce, is quite possibly the best scene in any “Mad Max” movie yet. This is also the scene where Anya Taylor-Joy’s older Furiosa shows what she’s capable of, as the two work together to protect the rig as it barrels through a barren desert. The scene is dude movie gold. It’s one of those times when you’re compelled to look around you at the other moviegoers, to make sure you’re not alone in your enthusiastic enjoyment.

The road war sequence shows what “Furiosa” is capable of, but other stretches of the movie struggle with pacing. On the one hand, it has scenes that get stretched out too long. Even worse, some others aren’t given enough time to breathe. A few transitions are so jarring, it felt like scenes were skipped altogether. “Furiosa” runs a full two-and-a-half hours, but it honestly didn’t feel that long. I would’ve been happier had they made the movie three hours and didn’t feel so constrained by time. Unsurprisingly, the 150-minute runtime allowed this story to feel so big, which is one of its major assets. We see Furiosa, Dementus, and Immortan Joe before and after a time jump of several years. We get to know them enough in the first half of the movie to care about what happens to them in the second half. I just wish more of the movie would’ve been as energetic as the road war.

“Furiosa” is a strong candidate for Oscar nominations in categories like make-up/hairstyling (except for the decision to let Anya Taylor-Joy wear a skull cap rather than shave her head like Charlize Theron did), costumes, cinematography, and score (in one climactic scene, the music was so loud I heard the theater speakers crackling). “Furiosa” made me more excited for more “Mad Max” movies than I had ever been before.

8/10