★★★★1⁄2 Rated R, 148 minutes. Opens in theaters nationwide on Friday, Mar. 24.
Watching a filmmaker like George Miller utilize big-screen storytelling tools to create memorable works like Mad Max: Fury Road and now Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is truly an incredible feat. Not many directors have consistently wowed audiences over several decades while adapting to the times. At 79, Miller continues to expand his skillset, crafting poetic, thoughtful, and thrilling works.
While Furiosa is further from the glee and simplicity of Fury Road , it's not without impact. Miller's new entry is a more bruising and darker chapter that showcases some of the decade's best action and features a never-better Chris Hemsworth chewing up the scenery. In Fury Road , we got a sense of Furiosa’s history following the collapse of Western civilization.
We know Charlize Theron’s warrior character once lived in a fertile land of life and color called the “Green Place” that was cared for by the “Many Mothers,” one of whom was Furiosa's mother, Mary Jabassa (played by Charlee Fraser). Miller takes us back to the beginning of Furiosa's grim story, starting from when she was kidnapped as a child (a very good Alyla Browne) by a biker gang led by the warlord Dementus (Hemsworth). This event leads Furiosa (later played by Anya Taylor-Joy) to witness death and violence across an unforgiving and relentless desert wasteland.
It becomes her lifelong mission to return home and escape the madness t.
