Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Director: George Miller
Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Alyla Browne, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Burke, Lachy Hulme, George Shevtsov, John Howard, Angus Sampson, Nathan Jones, Josh Helman, Charlee Fraser, Dylan Adonis, Elsa Pataky, Daniel Webber
Running Time: 148 min.
Rating: R

★★★ ½ (out of ★★★★)

It makes sense that the very idea of Mad Max: Fury Road getting a prequel would cause instant skepticism among fans who consider it one of the finest action movies of the decade. But we know nothing's off limits in Hollywood, as the history of this particular franchise has already proven. There were Mad Max movies before Fury Road, and despite the inexplicably poor box office performance of Furiosa, it's still a safe bet we'll see even more. Few thought this property could survive without Mel Gibson, until Charlize Theron came along and with a single outing established herself as equally irreplaceable in viewers' eyes. Now, it's someone else's turn. 

Rotating leads notwithstanding, the real key to the series' success has always been visionary director George Miller, who believably shoots action and spectacle better than just about anyone. A revenge story through and through, Furiosa's broken into five titled chapters filled with spectacular action sequences, incredible Simon Duggan cinematography and award worthy costuming and production design. So while audiences were busy basking in the enormity of Dune: Part Two, they somehow  missed out on the year's other huge sci-fi event.    

In post-apocalyptic Australia, a young Furiosa (Alyla Browne) is captured by wasteland Raiders on motorcycles while picking peaches. After being taken to their leader, Dementus (Chris Hemsworth), he demands she lead them back to her home, The Green Place of Many Mothers, which is one of the last remaining areas with fresh water and agriculture. But when Furiosa's mother Mary (Charlee Fraser) is crucified by Dementus when attempting to rescue her, he adopts the girl as his own, agreeing to trade her to Citadel warlord Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme) in exchange for valuable supplies. 

When Furiosa runs from the clutches of Joe's son Rictus (Nathan Jones), she disguises herself as a mute teen boy, rising up the ranks of Joe's army for over a decade while helping to build the massive War Rig tanker. Still haunted by the past, an older Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy), eventually trains under driver Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke), making plans to ambush Dementus at the dilapidated Gastown. With her sights set on finally confronting the man who murdered her mother, Furiosa has no intention of showing him any mercy. 

If the decision to go with an origin story removed Theron from the equation (save a brief cameo via archival footage), it's fair to say Taylor-Joy silences any doubters with an intensity that more than makes up for how little she physically resembles the actress preceding her. And recasting this role rather than testing the limits of iffy de-aging technology was a wise play from one of the few big budget filmmakers who's effectively balanced practical effects and CGI. 

Miller further proves this by implementing what's might be the crispest use yet of AI technology, subtly modifying young Alyla Browne's face into Taylor-Joy's as the character ages. This results in very little daylight between the two portrayals, helping to make the film's jump ahead in time look and feel seamless. It almost works too well since it's hard to pinpoint when exactly the older actress takes over the role. 

Since most of the first hour focuses on the child counterpart, many have complained Taylor-Joy's part is merely a supporting one. But if that's true then you may as well apply that same false logic to Browne, who plays young Furiosa with a steely determination that sets the stage for that second half. In actuality, each carry equal weight for their section of the story, making it easier to buy both as one in the same.

Unrecognizable behind his wig and prosthetic nose, Hemsworth's never been better as the dastardly Dementus. On one hand, his scheming character is entirely unserious, delivering one liners and dry, witty soliloquies to disarm adversaries, even as own underlings disrespect him. But Hemsworth eats this up, as his over-the-top mannerisms and facial expressions conveying a ruthless, sleazy streak that not only makes him a formidable opponent for Furiosa, but a wildly entertaining villain. 

The movie feels most alive when Hemsworth's on screen, but there's more than enough to take in while he isn't, like some awe-inspiring chase scenes and battles that make its two and a half hour run time fly faster than the considerably shorter Fury Road. Much of that could also be due to a story that, while steeped in allusions to religion, myth and politics, is solely about this girl's evolution from impressionable child to hardened, world weary badass warrior. Taylor-Joy isn't given much dialogue, but doesn't need it, her eyes telling us all we need to know about Furiosa's quest for revenge and potential journey back to the Green Place via that star map tattooed on her arm.

Dementus unintentionally set the wheels in motion for his own potential demise, even if he's too arrogant to notice. But before we get there, Furiosa fights alongside and bonds with Jack, who's probably the film's closest equivalent to usual franchise protagonist Max Rockatansky. And it's impressive just how much mileage Miller and co-writer Nico Lathouris get out of a pairing that leads to this sensational Gastown attack, as spraying bullets, high speed desert chases and flipping tanks culminate in the confrontation we've all been waiting for. 

Whether Dementus remembers what he did to Furiosa's mother, and how it does or doesn't change what's on her mind for punishment, leads to a compelling test of wills that Miller keeps us glued to our seats for. The ending skirts that line between legend and lore, organically shaping the future Imperator while laying the groundwork for what we know comes next. Furiosa isn't intended to be a deep, philosophical treatise, but an epic, pulse pounding adventure best experienced on the big screen, only making its lack of commercial success even more perplexing.

Mad Max: Fury Road

Director: George Miller
Starring: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Riley Keough, Zoë Kravitz, Abbey Lee, Courtney Eaton, Josh Helman, Nathan Jones
Running Time: 120 min.
Rating: R

★★★ ½ (out of ★★★★)

There's always that risk of feeling completely lost or out of the loop when the latest film in a long-running franchise with which you have no familiarity is released. And in the rare event it's celebrated to the extent that George Miller's Mad Max: Fury Road is, it's easy to have a debate in your head whether you should even go through the trouble of seeing it. While that might be a close-minded thing to say, we all have those blank spaces in our moviegoing and it's a legitimate concern that my inability to get around to watching 1979's Mad Max, 1981's Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior or 1985's Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome could create a self-inflicted roadblock in any potential appreciation of the new film. But 10 minutes in, the female protagonist drives her War Rig right through those preconceived notions and I'm completely sold, up to speed and fully engulfed in the universe Miller created and has now returned to. No explanations necessary because it's right there on the screen, so much so that it takes until about an hour for an actual conversation to occur. In many ways, this should have been the highest-grossing movie worldwide because it speaks the one universal language: Action. Everything revealed is done so visually, and once Miller gets his hooks in, your his.

Technically, this delivers unlike any recent entry in the sci-fi/action genre, with effects, production design, action sequences and cinematography so spectacular you must be thinking this is some kind of a joke as you watch, mouth agape at what's transpiring.  If it's a common, justified complaint that we're beaten down every year by uninspired computer-generated mayhem, this is its cure and a beating I'd gladly take again with a smile on my face. Striving for artistic excellence absent in most movies of its ilk, it tells its story expertly with a hardly a misstep to be found. Hearing that a certain movie "needs to seen in a theater" usually causes my eyes to immediately roll back into my head, but the size and scope of this project legitimately demands it. Those prematurely proclaiming it one of the greatest action movies of all-time may only have to wait a few years before discovering the possibility they weren't that far off the mark.

Set in a future, post-apocalyptic desert wasteland where water and gasoline are in short supply, the grizzled Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy) is captured by a group of War Boys, led by the ruthless Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne), who takes him to the Citadel where he'll be imprisoned as a blood donor. But when Joe sends out one of his lieutenants, Furiosa (Charlize Theron), in a rig to collect gasoline, he realizes she's stolen his Five Wives selected for breeding and gone off course, double-crossing him. Joe enlists an entire army, including a sick War Boy named Nux (Nicholas Hoult) who will stop at nothing to impress him, and has Max strapped to the hood of his truck for blood supply. Looking to make it to the "Green Place" with the women and escape Joe's tyranny, Furiosa's path will cross with Max and Nux's, resulting in a combustible situation that test everyone's loyalty and will to survive.

There's a thrilling chase sequence that seems to last about twenty minutes in the front half of the picture and  the highest compliment that can be given to it is that you don't feel as if your senses have been pummeled and are actually looking forward to whatever follows. Since Miller and cinematographer John Seale are such pros at sfilming these scenes, the action is the setup and there's never a doubt as to what's happening at any given moment. One of the script's biggest strengths is that we're immediately keyed in to the decisions these characters make and why without the burden of needless expository dialogue.

Furiosa's motivations are clear early on, as she intends to be the one who shakes things up, leading a surprising rebellion that lets Immortan Joe (clad in a terrifying Skeletor-like breathing mask) know that, even in a desperate, post-apocalyptic wasteland, these women aren't his property, nor is anyone else. And Theron is in full ass-kicking mode, giving the one-armed Furiosa a death stare that would send any potential threat heading for the hills before she even throws a punch or fires a shot, both of which she does plenty of. The arc of Hardy's Max and Hoult's Nux is a little more complicated, but no less riveting.

As the maniacal loner and prisoner finally getting a taste of freedom, there's an air of mystery surrounding what Max will actually do with it because he's flat-out dangerous. He could easily align with Furiosa or become her and the girls' worst enemy at the drop of a hat and while Hardy's performance has widely been labeled as merely sufficient in the face of Theron's, it's worth considering how effortlessly he replaces Mel Gibson with hardly anyone noticing. Nux's job as a character is to essentially sacrifice himself for Joe's greater cause so what resonates about Hoult in the role is how the realization slowly washes over him that it may not be worth it and he'd rather be a human being than a weapon. And The Five Wives (played by Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Riley Keough, Zoë Kravitz, Abbey Lee and Courtney Eaton) are hardly portrayed as passive damsels in distress, often taking a surprisingly active roles in the carnage as Miller also lets each of their personalities shine through, simultaneously subverting and exploiting their supermodel images for the good of the story.

This feels entirely like how action movies used to be made in the 1980's and it's arguable the chase scenes and action sequences (which pretty much compose every minute of its length) give Star Wars: The Force Awakens a run for its money in terms of production design and its balance of CGI and practical effects. You could call Miller's creation a throwback but doing so would almost imply it isn't the real thing or in any way feels like a reboot or remake in any traditional sense. There's a lot to take in at once in terms of what's on screen so it's not unusual that your jaw suddenly drops at the visual inventiveness of  it all, such as the guitar player strapped to the front of the rig or the "polecats" of Joe's army.   And because there's so little dialogue, the music has to carry much of the load, with Junkie XL's recognizably pulse-pounding score more than delivering the goods.

As big an achievement as this is, and how little it feels directed by a 70-year-old, it's accomplishments are primarily technical, making it difficult to gauge just how much stayed with me after the credits rolled. It's easy to imagine watching the movie multiple times with little difficulty because it's so exciting, but there is a nagging worry that its pleasures, as considerable as they are, may only run skin deep. Of course, this could just be a side effect of it being a genre picture or possibly where my unfamiliarity with the franchise prevents it from leaving the long-lasting impact it would on someone who grew up with the original films.

While nostalgia admittedly went a long way in covering for some of The Force Awakens' shortcomings in the minds of many, it's nearly impossible to level that accusation here. And there's nothing at all average in the execution of it, as Miller temporarily breaks down the barrier that's historically prevented action movies from gaining critical respectability. Thematically, there is more to it if you're willing to read between the lines to see this as a Biblical allegory about feminism, war, oppression or the environment, but Fury Road's ultimate value comes in the pure joy of just simply experiencing it.