'Furiosa' aka 'Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga' is a prequel/origin story film for Furiosa, the breakout character from the 2015 movie 'Mad Max: Fury Road'. In the earler film Furiosa was played by Charlize Theron, in this film she is played chiefly by Anya Taylor-Joy. The 2015 film was an anarchic feast of cinema strangeness and 80% a prolonged gonzo car chase through the desert, comparatively speaking 'Furiosa' is reflective.
Which is not to say 'Furiosa' lacks hyperactive set pieces, but that it is more concerned with character and world building then it's forebear. We learn much of the triangle of waste land trade (the franchise is set in a post apocalyptic Australia for those who didn't know) between the food producing Citadel and the straight forward products of Gas Town and Bullit Town.
Furiosa is abducted as a child from a relatively functional place of green and plenty and ends up at The Citdal, her captures having all died before they could reveal the location of her home. She grows up in The Citdal disguising her self as a boy before her skills on the convoy circuit are discovered. Through the years she dreams of two things, returning home and killing Dr. Dementus, the leader of the gang whose members kidnapped her as a child. While Taylor-Joy gives a strong performance with minimal dialogue, Chris Hemsworth chews the scenery and MVP's the movie as Dementus, almost unrecognizable in a prosthetic Roman nose.
This took a bit to get going but I was throughly enjoying it by the end, though it can't compete with 'Fury Road' in spectical. It also can't compete with 'Fury Road' in box office, 'Furiosa' has been a fiscal disappointment. This means we likely won't get a backstory film for Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke) the breakout character of this film. So much the pity. ***
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