Prequel ‘Furiosa’ deepens the impact of ‘Fury Road’
Maybe prequels get a bad rap.
No matter how often “Star Wars” and “Harry Potter” manage to screw it up, prequels can be a vessel for rich, satisfying storytelling that explore the backstories of complex characters like Saul Goodman or Vito Corleone.
“Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” operates best when it supplements and enriches unexplored elements from its predecessor, 2015’s multiple Oscar winner, “Mad Max: Fury Road.” George Miller, returning to the director’s chair, doesn’t try to outdo the vehicular mayhem that made “Fury Road” a modern action masterpiece (though a few sequences come close). Instead, Miller and co-writer Nico Lathouris commit to a revenge tale that helps to contextualize the motivations of “Fury Road” breakout Imperator Furiosa (played in that film by Charlize Theron).
Without Theron (or a Max of any type), the new film instead traces the destined-to-be-bad*** Furiosa back to childhood — a girl (Alyla Browne) who hails from one of the few green places remaining in an apocalyptic wasteland. A horde of biker raiders capture Furiosa (and murder her mother), setting her on a fated confrontation with Immortan Joe and his fanatical War Boys.
Joe, while an important secondary character here, is not the chief antagonist in “Furiosa.” That role belongs to Chris Hemsworth as a bombastic, ruthless warlord named Dementus. He chains a charred teddy bear on his back while riding a three-motorcycle chariot across the wasteland, murdering anyone who stands in the way of his plan to disrupt Immortan Joe’s gasoline empire.
The young Browne compellingly stands her ground against Hemsworth for the first hour of “Furiosa,” commanding the screen with minimal dialogue and a Theron-esque glare. She eventually hands the movie over to Anya Taylor-Joy, also demonstrating a silent-but-deadly ferociousness as an older-but-still young Furiosa.
Miller seems to be aware that topping the stunt-based action in “Fury Road” would be daunting (especially considering that film’s notoriously difficult production). A couple of extended vehicle-centric sequences still anchor the action, which are (mostly) as spectacular as those in “Fury Road.” The movie’s overall visual aesthetic matches the production value of its predecessor minus a few distracting CGI/greenscreen enhancements. These occasional shots wouldn’t be distracting if the movie didn’t otherwise look so striking.
Miller also understands the assignment when it comes to better establishing the character of Furiosa. The necessary bits (like the whole losing-her-arm business) arise out of her quest for vengeance, and the movie doesn’t dwell on “Midi-chlorian” explainers for details that don’t matter.
“Furiosa” also veers away from the expected in the final act, providing both Taylor-Joy and Hemsworth with some of their best material (Hemsworth, honestly, is giving the performance of his career).
The movie doesn’t top or match “Fury Road” because it doesn’t really try to replicate that winning formula. Instead, it enhances the material so that when you watch the film’s back-to-back, it plays like one satisfying epic.
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Tyler Wilson can be reached at twilson@cdapress.com.
This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Chris Hemsworth in a scene from "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga."