Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Summary

“Do you have it in you to make it epic?”

In 2015, George Miller blew the collective minds of the theater-going public with the exceptional Mad Max: Fury Road. With Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, George Miller has crafted a prequel to Fury Road that focuses on the backstory of one of that film’s greatest characters, Furiosa (played by Charlize Theron in Fury Road; played by Anya Taylor-Joy in Furiosa.) Warner bet big on the film and gave George Miller an extremely large budget of $168 million dollars. In fact, Furiosa is the most expensive Australian film ever made. Unfortunately, the film only did about $175 million worldwide theatrically which meant that Warner took a substantial loss on the film. It’s a damn shame, because Furiosa is easily one of the most imaginative and entertaining science fiction films to come out in the last decade. Fans of the other Mad Max films will find a lot to enjoy about George Miller’s most recent extravaganza.

The film begins forty five years after the collapse of civilization. Furiosa, as a child, lives in the “Green Place of Many Mothers.” This area has fresh water and survives on wind power and other green resources, making it one of the only havens left in the Wastelands of Australia. Some raiders on motorcycles discover the community. Furiosa jumps down from a tree and attempts to sabotage their motorcycles, but the raiders snatch her up and throw her on the back of a motorcycle to bring back to their leader, Dementus (Chris Hemsworth) of the Biker Horde. Furiosa’s mother Mary (Charles Fraser) is alerted to the kidnapping and takes off on horseback to retrieve her daughter and kill the men who know of their oasis. No one may be left alive that knows the way to the Green Place. Mary manages to kill all but one of the raiders, but one manages to return to Dementus’s camp with Furiosa. Dementus is struck by the clean healthy young girl, seemingly untouched by the apocalyptic world. The raider is killed by Mary before he can reveal the location of the oasis to Dementus. Mary rescues her daughter from her captivity, and they escape into the dessert hills, but eventually they are both captured by Dementus’s men. When Mary refuses to tell them of the way back to the oasis, Dementus forces Furiosa to watch as he crucifies Mary over a fire. Dementus, whose own family had come to some unspecified tragic end, adopts Furiosa as his daughter with hopes that she will one day lead their group of bandits to her land of plenty. Furiosa maintains a stoic silence, leading the men to believe her to be mute. The film charts Furiosa’s path from young child to bionic armed warrior with a thirst for vengeance while also showing the interworkings between the Citadel led by Immortan Joe (Lacey Hulme,) Gastown (which Dementus takes over in one of the film’s best sequences,) and the Bullet Farm.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is an expertly crafted and incredibly imaginative action-adventure film. It is amazing that George Miller has continued to build the world of Mad Max for forty five years with each continuation adding richer content to the Wastelands that he first envisioned in the Seventies. The first Mad Max film created that world, but The Road Warrior is where the potential of that world was first truly realized. While I still believe The Road Warrior to be the best of the series (this is simply my preference and largely due to my love of the practical stunts work in that film,) Fury Road showed that George Miller was not done crafting that world. Fury Road allowed his imagination to run completely wild in ways that would never have been possible using solely practical effects in the Eighties. It was a spectacle and easily one of the best pictures of 2015. Furiosa is different than Fury Road. It does not try to match Fury Road’s frenetic pace, instead crafting a story that is closer to The Count of Monte Cristo or The Odyssey. It takes its time to set up, but Furiosa is in many ways Fury Road’s cinematic equal. 

The world building in Furiosa is exceptional, connecting dots that enrich every other film in the series. George Miller aimed for this film to be a Saga – an odyssey focused on Furiosa’s journey. Like Fury Road, the film is still focused on creating action sequences that no one else has ever conceived before. The realism of the film is not crafted in showing us things that we are used to seeing, but instead on making sure that every item that is used in the picture is crafted from real things and serves an actual purpose. When two-seater motorcycles pull up to a tanker and the passengers in the back of the motorcycles deploy parachutes to parasail while assaulting the tanker, the result is truly incredible to watch as an audience. It is hard to call it “realistic,” but it is visually exciting. The film deploys a good amount of CGI, but also has a number of well orchestrated practical stunts as well.

The acting in the picture is first-rate. Anya Taylor-Joy has been one of my favorite lead actresses to emerge in the last decade. I really enjoyed her in Last Night in Soho, The Norseman, and The Queen’s Gambit, and I thought she was a great choice to play Furiosa. The film intentionally limited Furiosa’s lines to only a page or two of dialogue, but Anya is a very expressive actress and pulls off the demanding role with ease. Chris Hemsworth is very fun to watch in the role of Dementus, wearing a prosthetic nose that significantly alters his good looks. I was extremely impressed with Chris Hemsworth’s role in Bad Times at the El Royale, and this is another rock solid performance for the actor best known for playing Thor. I am glad that Hemsworth is taking on strange roles that allow him to ham it up. He brings the dark comedic elements of the character to vivid life. Lacey Hulme works double duty in the film as both Immortan Joe and Rizzdale Pell. I thought his performance as Immortan Joe was pretty seamless with that of the late actor Hugh Keays-Byrne from Fury Road. Tom Burke is also very good as Furiosa’s mentor Praetorian Jack. George Miller brings the best out of all the actors involved in the film, and there is nothing subtle about any of it.

The action sequences in the picture are remarkable and some of the most imaginative I have seen ever. It was great to see that George Miller still has a number of great ideas that have never been tried before for action scenes even after making some of the best stunt films of all time. For a picture that runs almost two and a half hours, the time flies by. Production design is top notch and despite the fact that a good amount of the CGI looks unconvincing, the picture brings to life the Wastelands of George Miller’s imagination. I particularly enjoyed the way this picture envisioned the three different towns – the Citadel, Bullet Farm, and Gastown.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is another high octane adventure from master filmmaker George Miller. The film is so incredibly imaginative, I can’t conceive of anyone walking away disappointed. The scope of the picture is epic, with George Miller continuing to add depth to the inner workings of the world he first created forty five years ago. Furiosa deserved to do better at the box office than it did, but I feel confident that it will find its audience over time. I hope it can eventually break even financially so that more of these films can be produced, but if this is the last Mad Max picture, the series is ending on a high note. After watching the picture, and thinking about the film, it continues to grow in my estimation. It earns my highest recommendation!

Video

Furiosa: A MAd Max Saga bursts onto the 4K UHD format in its original aspect ratio of 2.39:1. The film was shot with 6K and 8K digital cameras, and the mastering of the film was performed in 4K. The 4K representation on the UHD is (for the time being) as perfect a representation of the theatrical experience as possible with given technology. George Miller is clearly looking towards the future by filming with Arri Alexa 65, Red Komodo, and Red V-Raptor 6K and 8K cameras in RAW format. The film looks remarkable on UHD. Cinematographer Simon Duggan brings to life George Miller’s fast paced and expansive vision with a great eye for detail. Much of the film employs CGI and a number of practical effects, and I would be hard-pressed to say that the film looks realistic, but who cares? When a picture is this imaginative, I can cut it some slack. The HDR10 and Dolby Vision applied to the master bring out precise saturation levels in the colors and fine details. The film’s pops of red and orange from its dessert surroundings benefit a tremendous amount from the format. While I am sure the Blu-ray would be an adequate way to experience this film, the UHD presentation is one of the best on the format that we will see this year. This is a true reference quality transfer on a triple layered 100 GB disc.

Audio

Like the video transfer, the Dolby Atmos track is demo quality. The film’s track roars to life quickly and doesn’t let up for the duration of the film. The action sequences are ridiculously complex and have a lot of moving parts. The sound design is brilliant. I would not be surprised to see it nominated for some Oscars come award season. The propulsive score by Tom Holkenborg, who returns from Fury Road, is wonderfully done. Clarity is excellent and the movie will test the range of all your speakers and subwoofers. The ambient effects and numerous sound effects in the action sequences are completely immersive. Like the video transfer, the audio presentation is reference quality.

Supplements:

• Highway to Valhalla: In Pursuit of Furiosa – this hour long piece on the making of the film is very well done. It dives into the process of rehearsal, envisioning, and shooting the film with interviews of director George Miller, producer Doug Mitchell, first assistant director PJ Voeten, production designer Colin Gibson, actors Anya Taylor-Joy, Lachy Hulme, Quaden Bayles, and Chris Hemsworth, and more. Understanding more of the process taken to bring the picture to life only made me like the film even more. Fans of the film will find this piece answers a lot of questions. Definitely check this one out.
• Darkest Angel: Anya Taylor-Joy as Furiosa
• Motorbike Messiah: Chris Hemsworth as Dementus
• Furiosa: Stowaway to Nowhere – this is an in-depth look at the challenges fifteen-minute “Stowaway” action sequence.
• Metal Beasts & Holy Motors – this piece focuses on the vehicles.

Overall Scores:

Video: 5/5

Audio: 5/5

Supplements: 4.5/5

Overall – 5/5

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is one of the best films of this last year. George Miller has once again returned to the post-apocalyptic Wastelands of Australia that he has been developing in his Mad Max series since the Seventies, and the resulting film lives up to the lofty expectations one might have after seeing Fury Road. By focusing on the journey of Furiosa, George Miller has crafted an odyssey that also serves to add more depth to the other films in the series. As a prequel to Fury Road, the film works incredibly well, answering all the questions about Furiosa’s backstory. As a standalone film, Furiosa is just as impressive, delivering a great story of long gestating revenge. Fans of the Mad Max franchise should pick up this film immediately. The Warner Bros. 4K UHD release looks and sounds phenomenal. This is demo disc material with reference quality audio and video. The Atmos track is one of the best we will hear this year. The supplements are comprehensive and very well done. This is easily one of my favorite releases of this year. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga lives up to its name and earns our highest recommendation! Check it out!