When writer/director George Miller dove back into the Mad Max universe in 2015 with Mad Max: Fury Road, it was clear to fans that Charlize Theron’s Imperator Furiosa was the real star of the movie. It was clear to Miller as well, and now he’s given the character her own movie with Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is an origin story for Furiosa (played here by Sting’s Alyla Browne as a youngster and by The Witch’s Anya Taylor-Joy when she’s a bit older). The film covers the heroine’s kidnapping from her family in The Green Place by a band of motorcycle bandits led by a thug named Dementus (Thor himself, Chris Hemsworth, albeit with a laughable prosthetic nose), as well as her being brought to the fortress of The Citadel to become a servant of Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme from Three Thousand Years of Longing). As Dementus gains power in the wasteland, Furiosa finds herself caught up in the politics between the three fortresses. But she never forgets how Dementus took her from her home, and over the years, she seeks her revenge.

While Fury Road is basically one big (awesome) chase scene, Miller and co-writer Nick Lathouris (who also co-wrote Fury Road) expand upon the Mad Max universe while simultaneously providing a satisfying backstory in Furiosa: A Mad Max Story. Not that the Fury Road chase scene approach was bad (it absolutely was not), but there is much more of a plot to Furiosa. Of course, there are exciting and energetic chase scenes in the movie, but the story comes up for air a little more often so that Furiosa gets a Hero’s Journey type of a story rather than a simple adrenaline-filled action-fest.

This does not mean that there is no adrenaline-filled action in Furiosa. Miller is a notorious stickler for detail, especially with action scenes and stunt performances, and the action sequences in the movie are incredible. Instead of the supercross jumpers and cirque-de-soleil pole acrobats in Fury Road, Furiosa has paragliding attackers and ziplining War Boys.

And a ton of wrecked vehicles. Probably more than a ton.

Just about everything in the movie crashes and explodes, and it is all captured by an amazing camera team led by cinematographer Simon Duggan (Warcraft, Killer Elite) and set to a pumping score by Tom Holkenborg (aka Junkie XL, who also scored Fury Road along with the new Godzilla movies). The effects do look a little more CG-oriented than those in Fury Road, but it just seems that the technology was used to make the big explosions even bigger.

And speaking of the vehicles – the vehicles are a huge part of the fun of the Mad Max universe, and Furiosa does not disappoint there. Of course, there’s a War Rig (and it’s more spectacular than the one in Fury Road). But there’s also a six-wheeled monster truck, a three-motorcycle-pulled chariot, and a dirt bike built with a mannequin on the handlebars. Post-apocalyptic transportation at its finest.

But enough about the high-octane stunt work. Furiosa opens up the world that Miller embraced in Fury Road, giving the audience a glimpse of the power struggles that dominate the dystopian wasteland. It would have been easy for Miller to make Furiosa a feminist anthem, and he partially does, but what Miller does even more is use the Furiosa character and her tribulations to emphasize the patriarchal society that rules this vision of the future.

Furiosa’s quest for revenge is empowering, though. She’s easily as ruthless and cunning as any male, and what she may lack in physical strength she more than makes up for with speed, agility, intelligence, and heart. And she’s got the drive and will to carry out her mission. She’s an unstoppable force. So, while Furiosa may not really be a Girl Power movie, there’s plenty of Girl Power in it.

And Furiosa does answer the biggest question of all from Fury Road. It shows how Furiosa lost her arm.

Fans know what to expect from a Mad Max movie, and George Miller knows what to give them. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is worthy of its name. It’s a Mad Max movie that is not about Max. And it further proves what audiences learned with Mad Max: Fury Road – that Furiosa is an interesting enough character to anchor her own movie. This is the future of the Mad Max universe.

GRADE: A

MPAA Rating: R for sequences of strong violence and grisly images
Running Time: 2 hours 28 minutes
Release Date: May 24, 2024
Studio: Warner Bros Pictures