It’s been almost 10 years since Mad Max Fury Road was released in movie theaters and there is still a polarized reaction to that movie.

For some people, Mad Max Fury Road is one of the greatest action movies of a generation with so many memeable moments. However, there are some people who after watching the film ask a simple question, Where was Max in the Mad Max movie?

For years people strongly defended the notion that Mad Max Fury Road was essentially a bait and switch for Mad Max fans to introduce the character of Furiosa who was the true protagonist of the movie.  Years were spent gaslighting people into believing that they were crazy for thinking Fury Road was all about replacing  Max with Furiosa. 

Well here we are 10 years later and George Miller is back with another film that has nothing to do with  Mad Max but has everything to do with Furiosa.  Except this time instead of bringing back Charlize Theron who portrayed the character nearly a decade ago,  this film is an origin story starring the much younger Anya Taylor Joy In a film where there is virtually no talking from our Title Character.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga begins with a young Furiosa and her sister Valkyrie living in their home that is subtly named the Green Place of Many Mothers. Furiosa’s mother, Mary Jo, loses her life attempting to protect the existence of the Green Place from the Warlord Dementus played by Chris Hemsworth and his Biker Horde.

As the years progress, Dementus and the Bikers attempt an uprising against the Citadel’s leader, Immortan Joe and the War Boys, lead a devastating assault on Dementus’s army. Dementus demands food and water in exchange for not destroying Gastown but Joe demands to take Furiosa as one of his wives to make the deal.

Furiosa spends years in the wasteland disguising herself as a boy to prevent being raped by Immortan Joe’s son. As she becomes a road warrior to protect the shipment of gasoline, she receives an opportunity to enact vengeance on Dementus for murdering her mother.

One of the biggest knocks on Mad Max Fury Road movie was the fact that it was pure action and not much story.  George Miller tried to defend his film by arguing That dialogue is overrated in film.  As mentioned earlier, Taylor Joy only has roughly 30 plus lines in the entire movie that hits nearly a two-and-a-half hour run time but just because her character doesn’t speak doesn’t mean they’re not interacting between characters.

What Furiosa does and that tries to correct the mistake of having too much action by focusing more on the story behind the rise of Furiosa.  The audience discovers how she ended up with Immortan Joe,  the land that she came from,  and the origin story behind her shaved head and a missing arm.

Well if I tone down my approach to the action, there is far more story and character development making this effort the polar opposite of the first movie,  a creative decision that could turn off those who are looking for high-octane action to match the first film. Anna Taylor Joy’s presence in the film is not the selling point of the movie despite her playing the title character. 

Taylor Joy doesn’t even appear in the movie until nearly an hour into the runtime as we catch up with her modern portrayal of the character. In a lot of ways, Taylor Joy is outshined performance-wise by her younger counterpart Alyla Brown. 

The man who does the heavy lifting for most of the film is Chris Hemsworth playing the role of dementia.  The character is very withdrawn in his introduction but as the story progresses he becomes slightly more over the top as the reality of a post-apocalyptic world becomes a reality as all laws are thrown out the window for the sake of survival in resources.  The cinematography of this movie matches the original by creating a Barren desert Wasteland. It does more to add to the world-building even over the original film.

Although this film gets a lot right you also have to ask the question: will this satisfy casual moviegoers who were not enthralled with Fury Road nearly a decade ago?  Much of the movie is fan service to the reaction that the 2015 film received but once again if you are an original  Mad Max fan from the 1980s you are once again going to receive a film that feels completely despondent from the ’80s franchise that led us to this point in the first place.

Furiosa certainly has elements of a story that is made to quote-unquote modern audiences as at its core the film is a story about a group of women who are struggling to overcome male-dominated oppression and that message mirrors Fury Road. With that said Miller’s commitment to practical effects once again shows in terms of the visuals of this movie which does an excellent job of creating the visual epic that moviegoers are starving for in a 2024 film season that has been very rough up to this point.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is a positive addition to the franchise for those who want to learn more about the Mad Max world without Mad Max.  it’s condescending as that sounds that doesn’t take away from the fact that the film is a solid Action adventure that does its job in pleasing the audience.

2.5/5

Don’t forget to Subscribe for Updates. Also, Follow Us at Society-Reviews, YouTube,  Twitter, Odysee, Rumble, and Twitch