Year of Release: 2024
Director: George Miller
Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Burke, Alyla Browne, George Shevtsov, Lachy Hulme, John Howard, Angus Sampson, Charlee Fraser, Elsa Pataky, Nathan Jones, Josh Helman, David Field, Rahel Romahn, David Collins
Genre: Action, Adventure
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 5
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Synopsis and Review
After the wonderfully underrated "Three Thousand Years of Longing", director George Miller is back, focusing on another narrative in the "Mad Max" universe, this time around highlighting the Furiosa character, who made its debut on "Mad Max: Fury Road", with an iconic performance from Charlize Theron. The film takes place in Australia, years after a global catastrophe. Somewhere in that vast and radioactive space, life has found a way to resume and thrive once more. A place called Green Place of Many Mothers, where fresh water can be found and where agriculture has brought fresh vegetables and fruits to the small community who lives there. Two young girls are harvesting peaches, until they notice Raiders in the area. These raiders belong to a biker horde led by warlord Dementus. While one of the girls manages to escape, Furiosa is caught and is taken back to the biker horde's compound. Furiosa's mother follows her and the captor, and eventually manages to rescue her, but that rescue is short lived, as most of the gang goes in their pursuit. Dementus has taken a liking to Furiosa and doesn't want to let her go. Furiosa's mother is killed, and she starts tattooing a map to the Green Place on her arm. The biker horde in the meantime, tries to take over the Citadel, another settlement that also has fresh water and agriculture. The leader of the Citadel, Immortan Joe, isn't rattled by Dementus, and manages to keep him and his horde at bay. Refusing to acknowledge defeat, Dementus takes over Gastown, an oil refinery that supplies the Citadel with its much needed gasoline. Dementus wants to engage in a power play with Immortan Joe, and manages to do so. They come to an agreement, with part of that agreement including Furiosa. As she navigates the perils of the Citadel, Furiosa has her own revenge plans to focus on as she bids her time to put them in practice.
The best features of the "Mad Max" series, were always the ones where George Miller managed to balance the B-movie aspect of the narrative, with a clear, even if limited, understanding of who the characters in that universe actually were. "Road Warrior" and "Fury Road" are both films where the goal of the central characters is limited but also abundantly clear. They want to reach a certain destination, and need the means/resources to do so. The central characters (the Road Warrior and Furiosa) are possessed of a muted pain that both fuels their action, but also propels them in the pursuit of that destination. "Furiosa" starts well enough, but after a while it starts meandering off, and the script loses track of what has made these films always so interesting. Furiosa the character is a survivor, one who wants to avenge her mother, but also someone who wants to get back to her place of birth. In order to do so, she has to play the game with all these other players that are in this universe. And while this premise isn't necessarily an overtly complex one, the film takes its time to illustrate all these elements, inserting the horde of bikers, and Dementus, as an additional foil to Furiosa's journey. Turns out this layering of multiple antagonists, doesn't necessarily make the film more compelling, the same way this pseudo love/hate relationship between Dementus and Furiosa at some point is simply overdrawn (and that final exchange is simply painful). And that's one of the problems with this film, the lack of focus: there's a leaner, more to the point feature that exists in this self-indulgent experience that seems to go on forever. The casting of this film is also not the best: it was always going to be difficult to create something as impressive and as visceral as what Charlize Theron created on "Fury Road" (she obliterated everything in that film, including Tom Hardy who feels minimized in his efforts when compared to her), but Anya Taylor-Joy, for all her talent, gives the central character a very different perspective. There's determination, but also a certain passive engagement from her take on the character, which differs from both the hope and pained existence Charlize Theron played on "Fury Road". Chris Hemsworth on the other hand, is in full Monty Python throttle in this film. This is a performer who doesn't know how to do subtle, and for whom bigger borderlines on building caricatures, which is what Dementus ends up being. A clownish version of a villain, without much dimension, or much depth for that matter. He's hugely miscast and ends up undermining the emotional aspect of the film. The production team is top notch, featuring the amazing cinematography from Simon Duggan, score from Tom Holkenborg, production design by Colin Gibson, and costume design by Jenny Beavan. It's not a terrible film, but it isn't a very good one either.
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