By Jennifer Ariesta
Furiosa, the prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road arrives 9 years after the latter blasted its way to the big screens with George Miller’s indomitable hard rock energy. It revived a long dead film franchise and showed the world that a film mostly about a prolonged car chase can have a compelling narrative development. Now, Furiosa looks to do the same – this time with a more traditional plot structure and a younger heroine.
The film follows Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy) years before she incites a rebellion against Immortan Joe. As a young girl, she was taken from her home in Green Place of Many Mothers by rowdy warlord Dementus (Chris Hemsworth) and his gang of nomadic bikers. When their caravan runs into the territory of Immortan Joe, an all-out battle of supremacy breaks out between the two tyrants. Determined to return home, Furiosa must rely on her skill behind the wheels to navigate the war and escape.
Made with the same singular ambition and epic scope as the Oscar-winning Fury Road, Miller really took his time assembling each part of this movie. The technical aspects are masterful across the board. At 79, Miller’s artistic vision hasn’t run out of gas at all. The cinematography, editing, sound design, and the whole orchestration of action sequences in the film operate at the highest level.
Storywise, the film is more expansive and epic structurally. Instead of a high-octane all-out chase vaganza like its predecessor, the plot unfolds like the chapters of a book. It takes its time following Furiosa from childhood to girlhood, at the same time expanding the lore of the harsh realm she’s in. Themes of fascism and feminism are infused into the film’s core, with the dichotomy between bloody masculinity and nurturing femininity made so abundantly clear.
The movie’s longer duration and slower pace might test some audiences’ patience. After all, Fury Road had such perfect pacing with very little unnecessary fat. Furiosa, on the other hand, is comfortable allowing breathing rooms in between the vehicular showdowns. Like a novel, some stuff is just there as part of worldbuilding, not narrative advancement.
As with Fury Road, Furiosa tells its story mainly through visuals and performance. The heroine has very few dialogues. The bulk of her story is told through mise-en-scenes and Taylor-Joy’s powerhouse performance. She proves why she’s this generation’s brightest star, exuding majestic in her quietness. Bolstering her performance is Hemsworth as the unhinged warlord, nigh unrecognizable underneath prosthetic makeup and bizarre accent. He revs up the scenery-chewing in the best way.
But of course, you go to a Mad Max movie mainly for the supercharged vehicular spectacle. The intricate stunts involving brazen performers, explosives and vehicles of all sorts – cars, trucks, motorbikes, etc – make for such a satisfying watch. The novelty factor of Fury Road has eroded a bit, but there’s still enough fuel in the tank to entertain.
Prequels rarely feel satisfying because ultimately we know how things end, but Furiosa is one of the rare prequels that live up to its predecessor. Witness it in theatres near you!
