Furiosa is missing one key Mad Max element, and it’s all the worse for it

Mad Max movies made a name for themselves by thinking outside of the box, but Furiosa has none of that spark, taking “back to basics” a bit too literally.  

If you were a kid in the 1980s, chances are you have fond memories of Mel Gibson cutting up a post-apocalyptic Australia in his V8 Interceptor, occasionally with Tina Turner thrown in for good measure. Fast forward to 2015, and franchise creator George Miller dropped a masterpiece out of the blue and immortalized Imperator Furiosa as an icon of modern pop culture.

Yet after 10 years of waiting, Furiosa failed to rev my engine. Harshly putting the breaks on exploring the Wasteland’s weird and wonderful subjects, it’s an apocalyptic world that’s miles away from Fury Road, which puts the pedal to the metal from its mind-boggling opening scenes. 

Sure, Anya Taylor Joy’s take on Charlize Theron’s epic action heroine gives us more War Boys, more Immortan worship, and more faces to add to the Wasteland (yes, Chris Hemsworth is as excellent as predicted). Still, they’re all milling about in the background, not using their ‘full life’, so to speak. Instead, it takes a narrow road to Gastown by only following a woman-scorned narrative, which takes away from the unique edge Mad Max movies have.  

Furiosa has lost Fury Road’s wacky touch — and it shows

Warner Bros.

Woman is wronged, breaks free, and then sets off on a journey of revenge to settle the score once and for all. Where have we seen that story before? Thanks to a society and industry that skews things largely in favor of the guys, it’s a tale as old as time. So why does Furiosa need to tell exactly the same story?

In short, it doesn’t, and it’s worse off for choosing to do so. By focusing on a more traditional story that we’ve seen before and ignoring the wild world around her, Furiosa doomed itself to live in the shadows of Fury Road. Whereas Max and Furiosa’s journey was a continuous assault on the senses, her origin tale unfolds like a fable… and that decision changes everything.

Furiosa methodically ticks off plot points as though it’s working through one big to-do list on screen. Furiosa is built on chapters of slow-building drama, all of which distract the viewer from the bombastic world Miller has painstakingly created. Her formative years are careful and calculated, and there isn’t much room for a walk on the War Boy wild side. As Praetorian Jack tells her, she’s got an eye for keeping calm in a crisis.

The result of a lifetime spent meticulously plotting vengeance is that you miss out on the things that make Mad Max truly mad. Immortan Joe once traveled with a nonsensical metal band into every battle; now, they sit muted on the sidelines. War Boys had complex and entertaining personalities; now they have all assimilated into one white blob. If Tina Turner was still around, she wouldn’t be thrilled that her ruthless and archaic reign as a leading lady had gone to waste. 

Sure, there are new nods to what came before — note Dementus’ Thunderdome-looking microphone — but if you’re going to do fan service, do something a bit more exciting than a microphone cameo. There’s a case to be made that anything after Fury Road was going to pale in comparison, given that we’ve seen Miller’s new style before, but the blame lies solely with Furiosa taking a tamer road out of the Citadel. 

Furiosa is in theaters now. Find out more about Furiosa’s filming locations, whether there’s a post-credits scene, and if Mad Max turns up for good measure.

Find even more amazing new movies and TV shows streaming this month, or dive into all the new true crime documentaries around right now. If that’s not enough, find out what’s in store this year for K-dramas coming to Netflix.