(15) 148mins “WE don’t need another hero,” warbled Tina Turner as the end credits rolled on 1985’s Beyond Thunderdome. It was a tuneful end to the final instalment of Aussie director George Miller’s original and wonderfully grim Mad Max trilogy. But Miller would change his mind about those lyrics.
Nine years ago, his post-apocalyptic series roared back to life with the thrilling Fury Road. Tom Hardy replaced Mel Gibson ’s Max, but most of the heroics were performed by Charlize Theron’s one-armed warrior Furiosa. In the striking fifth film in, what is now, a “Mad Max saga”, Miller ditches Max to focus on his brilliant new heroine.
Furiosa, a Theron-free prequel to Fury Road, has all the ingredients of a classic Mad Max movie . We are served stomach-churning carnage, sun-blasted desert landscapes and hi-octane chases. Crucially, it also has an achingly cool lead.
Furiosa is a heroine of few words. She does her talking with her fists, her trigger finger and, after Anya Taylor-Joy takes over from child actress Alyla Browne, a pair of huge, unblinking eyes. There is, though, a noticeable change of pace.
The 2015 movie was one, long action sequence that played out over 36 hours. Here, the action spans around 15 years and is split into five episodic “chapters”. Chapter one is a belter.
A pre-teen Furiosa (Browne) is kidnapped by a gang of leather-clad bikers from her secret community of normally dressed farmers. Her mum grabs a sniper and gives chase, picking t.
