The hype surrounding the latest installation of George Miller’s “Mad Max” franchise, “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” is enormous. The movie, which came out in theaters Friday, is a prequel to 2015’s “Fury Road,” the most widely celebrated movie in Miller’s dystopian series, which launched in the 1970s. “Fury Road” was hailed as a groundbreaking action film, decorated with six Oscars and canonized as one of the best — if not the best — film of the decade by a number of critics. It’s certainly one of the most remarkable action movies I’ve seen.
Unfortunately, “Furiosa” disappoints. And not just because it fails to deliver the same earth-shattering jolt of energy and pathos as “Fury Road.” It sabotages its most interesting idea — that seeking revenge is a fruitless endeavor — by swamping itself with a long slog of a plot. "Furiosa" hints at some potent questions, including what constitutes justice and whether seeking justice is in tension with seeking peace or productive action. At a time when the rhetoric of revenge is thick in the air, it's a timely topic. But because “Furiosa” prioritizes building franchise lore at the expense of character and thematic development, it reminds us that even the most talented directors can’t necessarily dodge the pitfalls of endless intellectual property spinoffs.
"Furiosa" commits a cardinal sin of storytelling by telling instead of showing.
“Furiosa” fleshes out the backstory of Furiosa, who in “Fury Road” flees Immortan Joe’s dictatorship on a war rig along with the dictator’s “wives,” a group of women he’d kept incarcerated for breeding purposes. Right off the bat one can ask — does that story require an extensive explanation? The animating premise of “Fury Road” was always self-evident: freedom from tyranny.
“Furiosa” spends 2½ hours telling the story of Furiosa’s abduction as a child from the Edenesque “Green Place,” her captivity under the motorcycle chariot-riding warlord Dementus (Chris Hemsworth) after he kills her mother, Dementus’ trading of Furiosa to Immortan Joe as a child bride, and her escape from Immortan Joe’s wives’ lair and self-reinvention as a trusted mechanic disguised as a boy. (Furiosa is played by Alyla Browne as a child and Anya Taylor-Joy as an adult.) It then tracks her evolution into a road warrior as she tries to escape Immortan Joe’s grasp and confronts Dementus along the backdrop of a protracted power struggle between Dementus and Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme).
As tedious and muddled as the plot was for me — and some other viewers — there’s a lot to delight in along the way. As ever, Miller fiercely cultivates a haunting sense of place in his dystopia of dust and diesel, with bands of men warring in a wasteland ruled by avaricious warlords who exploit the Earth as brutally as they do women. There are a number of breathtaking action sequences that are reasons enough to watch the movie.
But in its final scenes, "Furiosa" commits a cardinal sin of storytelling by telling instead of showing. (Spoilers ahead.) After Furiosa stands on the brink of avenging her mother’s death, Dementus taunts her with the claim that her killing him won’t heal what ails her emotionally and that it will bring only temporary satisfaction. It’s obvious Dementus’ arguments are in his self-interest, because they could result in her sparing him, but still, Furiosa grows vexed. The narrator of the movie then explains that accounts of what Furiosa did to Dementus differ but suggests that she planted a seed from her native “Green Place” in Dementus' body, and that from Dementus’ remains sprang a fruit tree that nourished her as she slowly prepared for the daring escape and revolution depicted in “Fury Road.”
Furiosa’s hesitation and frustration as she contemplates killing Dementus; her understanding that killing him for emotional catharsis may be futile; her decision to instead transform him into a nourishing entity — all mark a subversion of the trope of vengeance as climax in an action movie. The implication is that the accomplishments she achieves in "Fury Road" are fueled in part by trying to live with, channel, and grow from pain instead of banish it. Ambitious, interesting stuff!
Unfortunately, it kind of comes out of nowhere, and after far too long a journey. Furiosa barely speaks the entire film, and while we understand her to suffer, there are not clear signs that she’s consumed by a desire for vengeance. Furiosa’s initial plan when leaving the Citadel in the first place is not to kill Dementus but to run away and find her birthplace and her old family. Later when Dementus tries to trap her war rig driver mentor and friend, Praetorian Jack, she’s motivated to abandon her journey home to help her new friend, not kill Dementus. She is moved to kill Dementus after he chases her down and nearly murders her. And plenty of scenes that could have depicted Furiosa as driven mad by bloodlust are instead devoted to portraying a protracted civil war between other characters who are not particularly distinct or compelling in their own right. So when we reach the final, idea-packed exchange about vengeance at the ending of the movie, it doesn't ring true with what led up to it, or at least it lacks heft.
I am not so insolent as to suggest that “Furiosa” needed lots of tender moments or elevated dialogue to express Furiosa’s inner struggle. The “Mad Max” universe is about action. But this is where Miller's genius lies: In “Fury Road,” Miller uses the mechanics of the plot, some sparse but punchy dialogue, and the action scenes themselves to consistently convey powerful ideas about gender egalitarianism, solidarity and communal governance. By contrast in “Furiosa” we get what feels like more generic (even if spectacular) set pieces and then, shoehorned in at the ending, an interesting idea about the futility of vengeance. Miller's knack for smart, exciting action movies isn't fully on display here, perhaps due to the way that franchises incentivize constant spinoffs that cannot possibly maintain quality over time.