Director: George Miller
Writer: George Miller, Nick Lathouris
Cast: Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Burke, Alyla Browne, Lachy Hulme, John Howard, Angus Sampson, Charlee Fraser, Nathan Jones, Josh Helman, Elsa Pataky

When a film franchise is able to span forty-plus years and keep up its momentum, you know it is probably something special. The Mad Max franchise has been going very strong since its inception in 1979, with nary a foot wrong (85’s Beyond Thunderdome might be the only slight exception). Co-creator and director George Miller has consistently stuck to his guns and his style when creating each of the four films thus far in the franchise, somehow keeping the Max name alive. Now, we diverge from Max Rockatansky himself and move toward the expansion of the world of Mad Max via a character we met previously in/on Fury Road, that character being the bad-ass Imperator Furiosa. Has Miller managed to keep the Mad Max standards up while going off-road with Furiosa, or is it about time the franchise died along with the rest of its own fictional apocalyptic world?

After disturbing some raiders, young Furiosa (Browne) is captured and taken away from her peaceful and abundant home, the Green Place. She is brought before Dementus (Hemsworth), the leader of the Biker Horde. Dementus semi-adopts her, but she eventually ends up in the clutches of the Immortan Joe (Hulme) at the Citadel. It’s not long before young Furiosa escapes, and then grows up in anonymity and disguised as a mute boy amongst the men of the Citadel. An older Furiosa (Taylor-Joy) begins to work on the War Rig, a heavily armoured tanker used for transporting supplies. Furiosa plans to escape the Citadel on the War Rig and find her way back home to the Green Place, but it’s not as straight-forward as she hopes, particularly after meeting Immortan Joe’s rig driver, Praetorian Jack (Burke).

At this point in the franchise, you’d be forgiven for thinking Miller and his cast and crew couldn’t possibly come up with yet another banger of a film that doesn’t ruin the pace of the franchise, and forgiven you are, because this is yet another solid entry. It probably helped that Miller had much of the story surrounding Furiosa mapped out pre-Fury Road, which meant that Furiosa slots in perfectly with no rush to fill in any plot holes or make excuses for this event or that character like other spin-offs or prequels often do. It is distinctly a Mad Max film, and to be a Mad Max film is to be unique and outstanding in the dystopian future/action genres. The plot is solid, the characters are clearly defined in who they are, what they want and where they’re headed, and it continues to ask and give potential answers to those hypothetical questions that we have regarding the beliefs and actions of humans in a post-apocalyptic situation.

Much like all its predecessors, Furiosa does contain a ton of epic stunt and visual effects work, and while it’s all awesome and goes a long way to providing a visually and aesthetically pleasing treat, they are not the main reason to watch this film. Furiosa as a character is one sincerely worth rooting for, as are one or two other supporting characters. Although followers of the Mad Max franchise will already know about Furiosa’s fate, it’s her journey to becoming the gritty and hard-headed yet compassionate character we come to care for that gives this film its depth and a real reason to enjoy it. Miller also continues to explore his imaginary dystopian-future Australia using everything modern technology (and a higher budget) allows, and it’s great to see everything expanding once again, with the world itself, the characters (main, supporting and extras all) and the effects. The costumes are still as creative and well-thought out as usual, with the attention to detail and extra care taken to emphasise each character’s experiences through their clothing being extra note-worthy. What’s even better is nothing unorganic is overused; Miller continues to do as much with practical effects as possible, and that’s something that really goes a long way to setting the Mad Max franchise apart, with Furiosa being no exception.

Browne’s portrayal of the young Furiosa is fantastic. She plays her perfectly understated, exuding the pathos of the character with next to no dialogue. Not an easy feat for a such a young actress. Then Taylor-Joy as young-adult Furiosa takes all of that even further. Utilising the eyes and body language to convey a character’s thoughts and emotions takes skill, and fortunately Taylor-Joy has that skill and then some. It’s fair to say that many fans deeply enjoyed Charlize Theron’s original portrayal of Furiosa, and so took Taylor-Joy’s casting with some trepidation, but she truly nailed the character and her essence. Hemsworth’s casting as the notorious Dementus was a good if interesting choice. As a conventionally Hollywood-attractive bloke, his physical attributes may have been at odds with who Dementus is, so the fact they used prosthetics to take away some of that worked in his favour, despite admittedly looking a little odd. Nevertheless, Hemsworth turned in a solid performance and provided a villain with depth that gave Furiosa more than just revenge to think about. Burke wonderfully embodied exactly the kind of character one would hope would be at Furiosa’s side, bringing out a side of her character we’d yet to see. The trio of Hulme, Jones and Helman as our main Citadel bad bunch worked well together as a variety of antagonists, each with his own agenda and reason(s) to be detestable. Also, shout out to every actor performing as a War Boy or War Pup, as they all looked fantastic, and the general concept of the War Boys is always something worth noting and celebrating.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is another impressive addition to a franchise that continues to climb to new heights and shows no signs of slowing. It contains everything we love about a Mad Max film while also driving on its own four wheels with Furiosa in the driver’s seat. It was perhaps a tad risky to veer away from the character of Max, but it’s proven to be a risk that paid off. With another potential story revolving around Max and other ideas surrounding the saga in the works, we can only hope and pray to the V8 that Miller continues to remain true to his own visions and stays on the same road to deliver us another excellent blend of stunts, stories and sets. I for one am very much looking forward to the next instalment.