Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024) – Review

Quick Thoughts – Grade – A – Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is big, bold and ambitious. It’s cool that a visionary like George Miller was able to get full creative control and a big budget that supported his style of punk rock filmmaking. 

It’s been several days since I watched Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and it’s been tough trying to wrap my head around such an epic film. The $168 million budgeted prequel (which really isn’t all that much nowadays) takes place in five chapters and uses every second of the 148-minute running time to blast your senses with car chases, fight scenes and Chris Hemsworth using big words. It’s not nearly as propulsive as Mad Max: Fury Road, but it’s just as ambitious and loaded with excellent action design by Guy Norris. It took a while to get into the rhythm of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga because the chapter breaks clash with the muscular editing done by editors Eliot Knapman and Margaret Sixel (once again doing an incredible job for George Miller). However, it’s still a wildly ambitious and beautiful movie that features dedicated performances from Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Burke, and Josh Helman (long live Scrotus!). 

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga focuses on the evolution of Furiosa (Anya Taylor- Joy), as she goes from child slave to becoming the most respected driver in the post-apocalyptic wasteland. The first two chapters focus on Furiosa as she’s kidnapped from her idyllic home (The Green Place), and becomes the adopted daughter of a warlord named Dr. Dementus (Chris Hemsworth) after he kills her mom (Mary Jabassa) and separates her from her home. After the death of her mom, the healthy full-life Furiosa stops talking and spends years locked inside a metal cage that goes everywhere Dementus goes. Eventually, his horde comes across the citadel of Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme), and a massive battle breaks out as Dementus makes a run at controlling the wasteland by taking over Gas Town and forcing an uneasy alliance with Immortan Joe. To finalize the alliance, Dr. Dementus trades Furiosa and the Organic Mechanic (Angus Sampson) to the citadel, and this kicks off the story of how Furiosa became a famous Imperator (driver of Immortan Joe’s War Rig). 

At first, Furiosa is intended to be one of Joe’s wives, but after a horrifying ordeal with Immortan Joe’s son Rictus (Nathan Jones), she cuts off her hair, disguises herself as a boy, and becomes part of the mechanic group who built the first war rig. Her mentor is Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke), a decent man who drives the war rig and isn’t a homicidal maniac like every other person in the wasteland. Together, they engage in some beautiful action scenes as they’re forced to deal with the many factions of Dr. Dementus’s horde who find creative ways to scavenge food and water.

It would be a shame to spoil anything else, just know the rest of the film features action scenes that will make your jaw drop. Chris Hemsworth and Anya Taylor-Joy are the standouts here and they expertly inhabit their characters. Hemsworth’s portrayal of Dementus is interesting because he’s clearly a villain (villain Hemsworth is always a good/bad time), but he’s also a broken human who is suffering after the loss of his family. He’s a three-dimensional villain who is dangerous because he is equal parts intelligent and chaotic. On the other side of the post-apocalyptic coin is Furiosa, a survivor who is intelligent, measured and patient. They are totally different, but because of their smarts and ability to survive they find themselves in a years-long battle. 

You might need to watch Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga a couple times because there is just so much going on. George Miller throws everything at the screen and his unhindered vision deserves to be watched in the biggest theater possible. It’s a fantastic experience and I can’t wait to watch it again.