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Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Movie Review

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is a 2024 post-apocalyptic action film directed by George Miller and starring Anya Taylor-Joy in the titular role. It’s a solid, but forgettable prequel.

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“Where are you going, so full of hope?

There is no hope!“

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Snatched from her home, young Furiosa falls into the hands of a great biker horde led by the warlord Dementus. Sweeping through the Wasteland, they come across the Citadel, presided over by the Immortan Joe. As the two tyrants fight for dominance, Furiosa soon finds herself in a nonstop battle to make her way home. This is a prequel to the excellent ‘Fury Road’ movie that remains the peak of the franchise, but this is a prequel centered on Furiosa, which wasn’t a strong choice on the onset, but it was even worse when they did not cast Charlize Theron.

I did like Anya Taylor-Joy here. She continues to be a great presence whenever she is on screen. However, Theron she simply is not. She lacked the memorable physique and bravado that Theron imbued in the role and it was simply very difficult to believe that such a scrawny young woman would be fighting to survive in this harsh world with all these muscular, ruthless men. It’s that case of Hollywood trying to be feminist at all costs while losing any semblance of realism in the process.

Chris Hemsworth is pleasantly unhinged in the role of Dementus and quite well cast. I also liked Tom Burke and of course the Joe character was very memorable once again. But my main issue with this film is that it failed to properly develop any one of these characters, including Furiosa herself, making me not care for her in the slightest. There is even less dialogue here than before, which led to muted emotional resonance.

Furiosa is a film that looks and sounds good, but it absolutely lacked the thrills and the artistry of its famous predecessor. Yes, it’s very well shot and it features some striking sequences here and there, but none could compete with the last film’s exhilarating and gorgeously shot set pieces. The movie was also way too long at two and a half hours and not as slick and lean as the aforementioned film.

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The action is so well shot, but it got tiresome pretty quickly due to that staggering length. The score is actually excellent and I also liked its overall world building, but the plot itself left a lot to be desired. It was just a regular revenge story that was differentiated from others with its chapter structure and a long character arc, but when all was said and done it left me feeling cold and bored.