Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

It's no "Fury Road," but the origin story of Furiosa is another slam-bag road rage adventure that evocatively fills out the mythology of George Miller's wasteland.

If you’re expecting another movie as absolutely wild and blood-pumping as “Mad Max: Fury Road,” then the prequel may leave you a bit disappointed. Though a couple of steps down in terms of storytelling and character building, it’s still slam-bang road rage adventure.

“Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” is the origin story of the title character, played by Charlize Theron in “Fury Road” and Anya Taylor-Joy here in a younger version. The screenplay by director George Miller (and Nick Lathouris) tracks her from about age 10, when she is hijacked from the Green Place of abundance, to be about 25 when she becomes the main rig driver for the warlord Immortan Joe (played by Lachy Hulme after the death of Hugh Keays-Byrne).

Many of the same characters turn up again as younger versions of themselves, including Joe’s allies the People Eater and the Bullet Farmer. Joe’s ogreish son Rictus Erectus (Nathan Jones) is back, along with another we haven’t seen before, Scabrous Scrotus (Josh Hellman).

The one thing “Furiosa” does very well is fill out the mythology of Max’s wasteland, even if he himself isn’t a figure in this film. (Except for… well, you’ll find out.) People who played the “Mad Max” video game released in conjunction with “Fury Road” will see a lot of its backdrop carried over to this movie. Keep an eye out for the delightfully off-kilter mechanic, Chumbucket, who makes a brief appearance.

The movie spends a lot of time on Furiosa’s childhood — probably too much, really. Taylor-Joy doesn’t even appear for an hour into the movie, with Alyla Browne playing her as a kid.

She gets passed around various grubby hands before hiding out among Immortan Joe’s operation, rising up the ranks until eventually becoming the apprentice of Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke), the chief driver of the war rig that shuttles supplies between Joe’s Citadel, the Bullet Farm and Gas Town, whose names explain their purpose.

The main villain here is Chris Hemsworth as Dr. Dementus, a kooky dude who lives up to his name. He’s basically just another leader one of the many scavenger gangs that roam the wasteland, but he takes one look at Joe’s set-up and decides he wants into the ranks of the big boys. Hemsworth wears a hooked nose prosthetic and employs the twangiest of Aussie accents to appear as completely un-Thor-like as possible.

Taylor-Joy is a compelling figure as Furiosa, who employs very few words — at first, to pass as a boy, but later as she grows in her role as Jack’s pupil and, it’s implied, his lover. She’s got the thousand-yard stare and the vengeful snarl down pat. She bears a grudge against Dementus for his role in separating her from her home and mother.

As for Hemsworth, the truth is he just isn’t very scary. I get Miller & Co. were going for a bad guy who’s more off his rocker than truly depraved, but the many humorous quips and rambling speeches Dementus gives renders him as almost more the comic relief than the baleful nemesis of the piece.

The vehicle chases and body-flying stunts, rendered largely with practical effects and some CGI assist, aren’t on par with “Fury Road” but probably equal anything seen in the earlier trilogy. A extended chase with Jack and Furiosa driving the war rig as a small army of white-painted war boys defend them against raiders is a high point.

Of course we also learn the origin of how Furiosa lost her arm and gained the metal prosthetic one, though that happens toward the end and feels a little perfunctory. There’s nothing about Furiosa’s supposed infertility, which Miller and Theron have talked about extensively as central to her journey, eventually rebelling against Immortan Joe, who keeps women as baby-making slaves.

If this review sounds like a pan, it’s not. “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” is an undeniably entertaining flick, the perfect sort of summer movie. It’s just that when you step off the pinnacle of possibly the greatest action film ever, it seems like a long way down.