It’s been a month since Furiosa was unleashed on cinema screens around the world and, going by its box office performance, it’s not really doing the numbers. I had pre-booked my ticket a month prior as I enjoy the Mad Max films and particularly enjoyed the visceral, high-octane spectacle that was Fury Road. So, I was curious to see what director George Miller came up with as the prequel to that film and the origin of the character, Imperator Furiosa.

The film itself had been in development since Fury Road’s release back in 2015 and likely been in George Miller’s head some time before that. In that time, Charlize Theron dropped out and was replaced with Anya Taylor Joy who, whilst new to pure action roles, is no stranger to thrills coming from a horror background.

There are two plots going on here: The first is Furiosa’s struggle to return to her home of The Green Place whilst the second is surrounding the antagonist, a rather excellent Chris Hemsworth, Dementus and his biker gang’s attempt to control the three fortresses of The Wasteland – Gastown, The Bullet Farm and The Citadel.

The film is split into four acts, and so will this review:

Capture and Loss of Innocence

We start with a young Furiosa in The Green Place picking peaches with her friend. They come across members of a biker gang killing a horse, presumably for meat, and taking in the water. Furiosa tells her friend, Valkyrie, to hide whilst she goes and sabotages the bikes. But, Furiosa is kidnapped. Using a whistle round her neck, she calls for help and her mother hears. A chase ensues between the gang, Furiosa’s mother and another of the Many Mothers. The two women catch up to the gang in the desert and proceed to pick them of with their rifles. All except one. The one with Furiosa. Her mother gives chase alone and is led to a giant camp. It is here that we’re introduced to Dementus when Furiosa is brought to him by one of the gang, not the one that took her but another seeking favour, where he decides to keep her as a surrogate daughter for his own lost children. The Green Place is kept safe though as Furiousa had already slit her captors throat – Unable to tell Dementus where it is, he is fed to the dogs.

One night, a sandstorm breaks out and Furiosa’s mother takes the opportunity to dress as one of the dead bikers and saunter in, grab Furiosa and make her way back home. Dementus is on to this and gets the bike, loaded with fuel at the back, shot. Naturally, the fuel explodes but the two women are fine. The mother sustains a fairly major but recoverable burn when she should have died of concussion and burning. Same goes for Furiosa. At the point of detonation, the film should have ended with our protagonist dead. But, being a female-led prequel, that can’t be allowed to happen. This is the first instance of the Mary Sue trope in the film. I will say, Furiosa is not littered with egregious examples, but the ones that are in the film, remove your ability to suspend disbelief for a few moments.

Using his bloodhounds, Dementus tracks and catches the pair before torturing Furiosa’s mother for the location of The Green Place. She doesn’t give in and tells Furiosa to escape. She starts her escape on a bike, but then stops and comes back only to watch her mother being roasted alive for the location for which she dies without giving it up. Furiosa is taken and becomes mute.

An Exchange

We are then shown Furiosa’s time under Dementus’ capture where the gang grows increasingly in size and violence. One scene shows a rival gang leader chained to five bikes and torn apart instantly seeing Dementus absorb the gang into his.

We are then reintroduced to a War Boy. This one, with an arrow in his head, has been badly affected by a battle and not only tells Dementus of the Citadel but leads them to it. Filled with fresh arrogance and vigour, Dementus leads the charge to try and seize this Place of Abundance.

We are also reintroduced to Fury Road antagonists, Immortan Joe, his sons Rictus Erectus and Scrotus, and the People Eater.

Dementus gives Joe an ultimatum which is dismissively mocked. In a show of strength, Joe orders a War Boy to sacrifice himself which he does gladly, taking out several of Dementus’ bikers. A brawl ensues and Dementus retreats having taken heavy casualties and realising Joe is not an enemy that can be taken easily and quickly.

So, he begins to solidify his position and starts to grow an empire after learning the Citadel trades food and water for gasoline from Gastown and ammunition from the Bullet Farm. First target on the list is Gastown.

As a diversion to draw Immortan Joe out, Dementus succeeds in overpowering one of the convoys heading to Gastown. With some of his men dressed like War Boys, they drive the convoy to Gastown whilst the remaining men engage in a fake hijack attempt. The leaders of Gastown see this and raise the gates to allow the convoy in; little do they know they’ve just let in a Trojan Horse.

Dementus’ men, led by Octoboss, proceed to storm Gastown in a bloody battle to which they emerge victorious. With Gastown his, Dementus rigs it with explosives to be presented as a more substantial ultimatum.

Dementus returns to the Citadel to make a deal with Immortan Joe imbued with real confidence and weight. The demand is simple: Immortan Joe is to recognise Dementus as the leader of Gastown. If he doesn’t, Dementus will set off the bombs with the code only he knows.

Joe, however, is more taken by the presence of the young Furiosa. When he asks about her, Dementus tells Joe that she is his child and, knowing Joe’s own genetic material is faulty as well as having a fetish for young, pure women, tells him that she inherited all her mother’s perfections. There is a moment of tension when Joe asks Furiosa herself to confirm this. She doesn’t get to say anything before Dementus claims her mute. For the first time since watching her mother die, Furiosa speaks to tell Joe Dementus is not her father and he killed her mother.

With this knowledge, Joe agrees to Dementus’ deal on the provision that he hands over Furiosa, to become a Wife, and his ‘Organic Mechanic’. Whilst Dementus accepts the terms, he shows his disgust in a childish move to taking back the teddy bear he gave to Furiosa.

Reinvention

For the film’s main action sequence, we get introduced to the ‘Max’ in this Mad Max Saga film ;Praetorian Jack, played by Tom Burke. He’s stoic, but empathic in a pragmatic sense. He is chosen to pilot the War Rig as he’s done the most runs on the Fury Road and never failed to deliver the goods.

We are then reintroduced to Furiosa as his co-pilot. By this point, time has moved on that, when Furiosa was handed back to Joe, she broke out of the vault where the Wives were kept, but stayed in the Citadel, pulling the same trick of being a mute boy to cover her identity and found a new occupation in the ‘House of Holy Motors’ as a mechanic and joining Immortan Joe’s ranks and moving up them right to when she is an adult where she is co-piloting the coveted War Rig. A vehicle she helped build.

Jack and Furiosa have a very practical relationship but the film tries to sell it as a possible romance. Frankly, there’s just no chemistry of that kind between the pair and it’s clear from the start right through that these two are forced.

But the War Rig is heading to Gastown to make a food delivery. We cut back to Gastown to show Dementus has a secure grip of the place having violently evicted the previous stewards.

However, the War Rig comes under attack by a now former member of Dementus’ men. The Octoboss has gone rogue and wants to show his skill and might as a leader again, so he attempts to take the War Rig.

The following battle is nowhere near the level of intensity as Fury Road but, for context, this is a hijacking of a supply run not the retrieval of Joe’s precious Wives which demanded the full might of his forces. This is a skirmish led by a chancer of a leader trying to gain status by going after valuable supplies. Unfortunately for the Octoboss and his crew, the flagship War Rig is piloted and manned by Joe’s best so it’s not an easy picking even with the advantage of using air as well as land assaults. So, no, this sequence is not as impressive as the War Rig fight in Fury Road, but just because it’s not as impressive does not mean it’s not impressive. In the context of the story, it’s still impressive.

In the ensuing melee, Furiosa’s true identity is revealed to Jack to which a fight for control of the rig breaks out and ends almost as soon as it started with Jack easily scrubbing off Furiosa’s attack. He then dumps her in the Wasteland leaving her for dead.

Now, of course, given the runtime, we are about two-thirds in, the film does not end here. Jack does have a change of heart and comes back for Furiosa admitting she’d had a bad day and that, with the War Rig convoy and crew dead, he’d need to start again and might as well start with her. He promises to teach her everything he knows to survive in the Wasteland so she can get to where she needs to go. The Green Place.

We see the pair go on various runs together and their bond tightens to the point where the romantic angle is pushed again but, for this viewer, it just doesn’t work. This relationship is pragmatic and platonic. There is honour and respect between the two and the love is born from that but nothing more.

One run leads the two to Gas Town for fuel where the place is now in disarray – Dementus’ grip has slipped and he seems to almost relish the chaos. The pair just about escape a skirmish and return to Immortan Joe to report on the state of Gas Town. Joe then orders the pair to head to Bullet Town and stock up on ammo for a takeover of Gas Town.

However, this is part of a cunning plan of Dementus’ to throw Immortan Joe off and make him think Gas Town is vulnerable and ripe for a hostile takeover. In reality, it was a ruse and Dementus leads his men to the Bullet Farm for an ambush of Joe’s convoy.

Now, we get an interesting action sequence with Jack using the War Rig as a weapon whilst Furiosa adopts a sniper position to take out Dementus. Trouble is, we’ve not seen Furiosa use a sniper rifle before and, yet, she’s a bloody good markswoman. Just where did she learn to be a sniper whilst working as a mechanic? This is not revealed and we are left to assume she is just awesome.

Equally, we are to believe Furiosa is impervious to fire. During the sequence, the War Rig is sacrificed trying to leave the Bullet Farm and explodes near the gate. Furiosa is on the other side with her back against the gate whilst the fire rages around her. At the very least, the back of her jacket should be melted to her flesh. Metal does not shield you from heat, darling.

Anyway, the pair escape in the car Furiosa rode in on. Dementus and his men give chase across the Wasteland as the pair vow to find the Green Place. This provides us with a pretty cool cat and mouse chase with Dementus in a crazy Monster Truck bearing down on our heroes.

In an attempt to kill Dementus, Furiosa uses the boom stick (given earlier and seen in Fury Road. Why a standard shotgun needs an origin is beyond me, but, oh well.) but fails. As she’s between the truck and the car, Dementus takes the chance to crush Furiosa’s left arm before fully ramming the car and taking it out, allowing him to capture Furiosa and Jack.

With Furiosa strung up, ironically, like her mother, by Dementus, Jack meets his end by being dragged and tortured by motorbikes. Given Furiosa’s reaction, it’s clear she’s not all that fussed as she takes the opportunity to hack off her left arm and escape. Now, I’ve still got both my arms so I can’t speak to what it’s like to cut one off, but I’d imagine it’d hurt like Hell and continue to do so for some time, However, we are in girlboss/Mary Sue territory here so, naturally, Furiosa can cut through her arm like a piece of boiled ham and feel absolutely nothing before, during and after. So much so, that she hops straight on a motorbike and proceeds to climb up a steep, rocky hill. How did she manage it?

The Darkest of Angels

She returns to the Citadel and finds refuge in a cave where her stump is cleaned and disinfected by maggots. She is now named ‘Praetorian Furiosa’ and sets about building a mechanical arm for herself. Again, we are not shown her prowess with anything mechanical. We just have to accept it.

We get a montage and voiceover showing us Immortan Joe’s commencement of the ’40 Days War’ where he tries to smoke Dementus out of the Bullet Farm and rid the Wasteland of what remains of him and his followers.

Furiosa makes one demand of Joe – “If you find him, he’s mine.” She says coldly but filled with rage.

She takes a vehicle and begins her hunt for Dementus. She catches up to the remnants of the biker gang that attempting to escape. Despite a mildly smart attempt at deception, Dementus is caught fairly easily and quickly deprived of water, ammunition and a wheel of his bike.

We are now given an interrogation scene in the desert. Bound in chains and on his knees, Dementus is questioned by Furiosa on whether he recalls her and her mother. He does not.

She proceeds to try and remind him of who she is and try to get him to recall the girl she was fifteen years prior.

There’s an exchange of deep, profound meaning between the pair and we get to see that, in reality, Dementus is a man of substance and he’s merely been projecting a persona.

Unfortunately, during a rather sincere monologue from Dementus, it gets interrupted with Furiosa beating him up. Now, I understand that she’s angry but I couldn’t take seriously a character two-thirds the height and about half the weight beating up someone that, even in chains and on his knees, could easily headbutt Furiosa in the ribs and severely wound her. It reminded me of the fight between Max and Furiosa in Fury Road where Max is trying to get the keys of the War Rig off her. We were expected to believe then that the two were an equal match. Like Dementus, Max was shackled except it was face bound in an edged muzzle. A muzzle which, with a swift headbutt, could have killed Furiosa with no real issue. And so too here in this prequel, we are expected to believe Furiosa has the physical edge over Dementus, even a psychological one. She does not. She is not imposing and has no plan other than to shout and hit until she gets answers. This is the plan of a braindead strategist, not someone who is supposed be ‘The Darkest of Angels’. To make this scene believable, we’d need to see Furiosa do something that compensates for her lack of physicality. She has a car and we’ve seen her use a sniper rifle. She could have laid on the bonnet of the car and fired rounds desperately close to Dementus to force him to stay absolutely still and tell her what she wants, or die.

This would have been more interesting, but never happened. Hollywood must encourage female on restrained male violence.

Further exchanges occur and Furiosa just beats him more until he passes out. When he comes to, Furiosa is holding the teddy bear Dementus gave her as a child. ‘Little D’ Dementus queries softly, now recognising who Furiosa is.

Dementus, who seems to be working from the same monologue, explains that Furiosa is his successor. That she is like him, already dead. Furiosa insists she is not. Dementus explains that both seek to feel alive and continue to wash the sorrow of their lost loved ones but it will keep coming back. He says again, they are already dead, and proposes to her, does she have it in her to make it epic?

We get narration that discusses rumours of how Furiosa killed Dementus. We get a montage of various methods of execution, but none match the simple cruelty of the real way Furiosa ended Dementus’ life.

In the hydroponic gardens of the Citadel, Furiosa, with the seed her mother gave her, planted a peach tree inside Dementus. We are shown his decaying body giving life to the tree her mother tasked her with saving. It’s a poetic end and neatly ties the film up.

We then get a short snippet of Furiosa making her way to the War Rig with the Wives. We end where Fury Road begins.

Conclusion

If this came out within three years of Fury Road and starred Charlize Theron, this would have done much better at the box office. Nine years is a long time in Hollywood and things have changed drastically, especially for female led action and superhero films. Recent examples have been brought down by poor writing and performances whilst forcing adverse political messages on to the audience.

Furiosa, however, does not suffer from poor writing or performances. The jarring political moments I’ve described are, on the whole, slight and don’t taint the enjoyment of the film. What the film suffered from is timing. The landscape is different and calling a film after Mad Max where, bar the briefest of cameos, there is no Max doesn’t do the film any favours. If it were shot back-to-back with Fury Road and Furiosa was shown first as a setup to the main event of Fury Road, say, six months later then 2015 would have seen two awesome films and Furiosa would have been seen in a different light.

However, interviews with director George Miller, have stated he had no story for this film until after Fury Road and the impact of Furiosa as a character with the female half of the audience. This means there never was a plan for a spin-off but to still take so long for a film that’s not as engaging as its predecessor begs the question, why bother?

The appetite clearly wasn’t there as the box office figures show. And it’s definitely not that audiences don’t want an alternative to superhero films; Barbie and Oppenheimer proved that last year.

I think the main issue for Furiosa was that it simply missed its own hype train by several years. Had Tom Hardy or, lo and behold, Mel Gibson been in the film to set up a Fury Road sequel, audiences would have likely flocked.

Anya-Taylor Joy has shown she can do action and hold her own. I was surprised with how convincing she was as a toughened road warrior when I’ve only ever seen her in her roots as a horror actress.

On its own, Furiosa is perfectly enjoyable. Immortan Joe and the head honchos at the Citadel are not firing on full cylinders but, keeping in mind the circumstances of the film are not as urgent, they still show they have the ability for calculated violence.

The real star for me is Chris Hemsworth as Dementus. Going from Shakespearean comic relief as Thor to well, demented and damaged comic relief is a welcome change. Initially, he seemed to be the funny man but we are shown both real depth of the character and the range Hemsworth can operate at and he’s comfortable showing his dynamism in the role of a man where you’re just not sure if he’s actually telling the truth or just selling a lie. Hemsworth keeps the audience guessing on whether Dementus is actually mad or completely in control. Or maybe a bit of both depending on how the wind’s blowing.

Worth seeing? Yes.

Worth the wait? If you’ve actually waited for this, I’d say no. If you’ve not then you’ve not waited for it and can just immerse yourself in the absurdity of Mad Max once more.

Roll on the next instalment. Just with Max this time, eh George?