Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Cast: Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Burke, Lachy Hulme, Angus Sampson, Nathan Jones, Quaden Bayles, Daniel Webber

Director: George Miller

148 min.

George Miller's action masterpiece Mad Max: Fury Road is already known as one of the best action films of the 2010s – so it’s good to know that his follow-up prequel Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is equally outstanding. In Australia, where they shot Furiosa, the location and the film connects directly to Fury Road as a prequel, focussing on the character of Imperator Furiosa – as played by Charlize Theron in Fury Road. In this one, Alyla Browne and Anya Taylor-Joy both star as Furiosa (at different ages) expanding upon her backstory, taking audiences further into the adventure within the post-apocalyptic wasteland context of the Mad Max series. She is a warrior woman from the "green place" who has been taken by Dementus and his tribe of motorcycle maniacs. Dementus is quite the character, marvellously played by Chris Hemsworth, and the real menace in the wasteland, messing with the balance of power between the three zones: Gas Town, the Bullet Farm, and The Citadel run by Immortan Joe. They end up in a brutally violent war with Dementus, and Furiosa is caught in the middle of it, eventually joining with Immortan Joe, which is where she is when Fury Road kicks off. The focus is primarily on the emotional stakes and character arcs in addition to all the extreme action.

George Miller's project is glorious, gas-guzzling, sand-filled, breathtaking action cinema, featuring visual splendour that's instantly ratified as an iconic entry in film history. And this is after Fury Road also being one, too. It's not one long, all-out action sequence to-and-from The Citadel this time, but a more extensive 148 minutes, and goes from action sequence to world building sequence, smoothly drifting between them as the story follows Furiosa and Dementus, expanding upon the mythology of the wasteland. It's entirely possible that some viewers may not enjoy the pacing in this prequel as much, but Miller's sense of storytelling is so immaculate, the rest of it is just as fascinating.He may well have had plenty of great roles over the last decade, but Chris Hemsworth offers a jaw-dropping performance as the bearded madman – a quite unforgettable lunatic! The stunt work and action choreography is phenomenal, with so many sequences guaranteed to leave viewers breathless.