What would one even want from a prequel leading into one of the greatest films of the last ten years? After a strong box office performance and sweeping basically every technical Oscar in the 2016 awards show it was clear there would be more Fury Road stretching into the sunset. It wasn’t long after the release that the idea of a prequel focusing on Theron’s Furiosa was the clear path forward, and why wouldn’t be, she ostensibly operated as the protagonist of the film and was a scene stealer from the beginning.

Bring us into 2024, nine years after the release of Fury Road we have Furiosa now played by Anya Taylor Joy doing battle with the God of the Thunder himself, Chris Hemsworth playing the man who robbed her from her family, a biker gang leader named Dementus. The job of a prequel is a tricky one, as it will inevitably lead into a predetermined destination, so a focus on the journey, and perhaps the journey of more than one character is a smart maneuver by Miller here.

Around the twenty minute mark is when Miller shows his true intentions with the film, taking the time to let Hemsworth’s Dementus take center stage. He’s a gang leader trying to claw his way up the corporate ladder of the wasteland, he is also objectively not a good boss. He regularly sacrifices his troops for his own gains, puts himself and his crew into precarious situations, and is generally speaking the least charming person you’ll ever be likely to meet in a wasteland filled with less than reputable folks. Only through sheer dumb luck and the aforementioned willingness to sacrifice others does he manage any success at all. He trades Furiosa to Immortan Joe as a means to take over Gastown and have some political clout to rule the Wasteland with. So while he is doing a bad job of that, she is climbing her own corporate ladder, disguising herself as a man and working odd jobs in The Citadel, getting promoted purely by managing to stay alive.

While Fury Road was beautiful in it’s simplicity this film hearkens back to the energy of the Mad Max films that came before, after all, it is set before. It fills in the lore of The Wasteland, The Citadel, The Bullet Farm, and Gastown. After all if we wanted more Fury Road with Fury Road energy we would simply watch Fury Road. It is much more concerned with the minutiae of day to day life in The Wasteland, and just how the operations of Immortan Joe’s empire works, the cut throat mob boss mentality of rising through the ranks.

A large chunk of the film is about inept leadership, and the back stabbing mentality of success, be it in The Wasteland, The Citadel, or whatever lense you’d like to put it through. While Immortan Joe and the leaders of Gastown and The Bullet Farm are certainly more competent than Dementus, that’s grading on a curve. Eventually we meet someone that feels properly competent, the driver of The War Rig, Praetorian Jack, the only normal man left in The Wasteland. Being a normal, well rounded person is more than likely what got him the job of driving The War Rig, as there seems to be a definitive lack of those around these parts. During a ride out to Gastown the rig is attacked, by men that used to work for Dementus but have deserted into The Wasteland, underlining further just how bad Dementus is at keeping his team in line. Upon arrival we see Gastown in full revolt, the denizens rioting openly against Dementus’ rule as he demands a meeting with Immortan Joe and the leader of The Bullet Farm.

Through all this Anya Taylor Joy’s performance is not as flashy as Hemsworth’s. But her job is much more specific, she has to copy Charlize Theron’s performance in Fury Road, and she does a remarkable job. She’s much more muted than her co star but has her Theron down to the point that with limited dialogue and only furtive looks she captures the essence perfectly. She also has less screentime than Charlize did in Fury Road. Much like in Mad Max: Fury Road George Miller has made a movie with a character in the title, and given almost equal screen time to a newcomer in Chris Hemsworth’s Dementus.

The film paces itself correctly in that as it unfolds it only proceeds to get more “epic”, a word used by Dementus towards to the end of the film in a question that feels more like a demand of both Furiosa the character, and Furiosa the film. The War Rig is shown in full display, doing battle much like we saw in Fury Road, but turned up a couple notches just to show that we can indeed go bigger. Aerial battle on The Fury Road is just one moment that had me gasp as Miller showed that he still has cadres of weird little freaks to throw at the screen. The blend of practical effects and CGI continue to make the world look just as chaotic as we remember it. If every action movie looked as good as this does, and had this much flair, the world would be a better place.

5/5