Counterpoint: ‘Furiosa’ Is an Underwhelming Retread of ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’
“Do you have it in you to make it epic?” bellows Dementus (Chris Hemsworth), big-bearded warlord and would-be ruler of the wasteland, in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. Writer/director George Miller sure does, crafting his prequel to 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road as an even grander vision of post-apocalyptic survival and warfare, complete with gnarly set pieces that roar and rumble with unbridled ferocity. In terms of look, scope, and attitude, this eagerly anticipated follow-up ably matches its predecessor, thereby reconfirming its maker’s status as film’s preeminent virtuoso of V8 chaos and madness, and reestablishing the franchise as Hollywood’s most deliriously deranged.
Yet despite its numerous virtues, Furiosa, which hits theaters May 24, is a somewhat underwhelming beast, and that has less to do with execution than concept. Co-scripted by Nico Lathouris, the latest installment in Miller’s long-running saga is the first to go out of its way to not reimagine its material in some novel fashion. From the hyperactive indie grunge of Mad Max to the rugged widescreen splendor of The Road Warrior, the daffy Spielbergian extravagance of Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, and the maniacal speed-freak insanity of Mad Max: Fury Road: The writer/director has treated his series as a venue for startling creative experimentation. By doing so, he’s kept it not only fresh, but vital. With Furiosa, however, he chooses to follow the playbook he penned less than a decade ago. Consequently, the results are—for better and worse—only as epic as you’d expect.
Furiosa strives for majesty from its biblical opening scene of a young Furiosa (Alyla Browne) picking an apple from a tree, at which point she immediately spies biker-gang intruders in her lush Eden home. Despite exhibiting considerable feistiness, the girl is snatched, instigating a pursuit to reclaim her by her mother (Charlee Fraser), who’s a deft rider and even handier with a sniper rifle. Nonetheless, Furiosa soon winds up the captive of Dementus, a chieftain who wears a white translucent robe that doubles as a cape, and who gives her a teddy bear that once belonged to his children. As vigorously embodied by Hemsworth, the wild Dementus lives up to his name, although his motives—to conquer the wasteland by whatever vicious and underhanded means necessary—are rather mundane, and he pales in comparison to the unforgettably monstrous Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme), with whom he quickly finds himself at odds.