The critics are (mostly) loving Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.
Has George Miller done it again? The iconic director first brought the Mad Max franchise to life in 1971 and went on to helm Mad Max 2 AKA The Road Warrior in 1981, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome in 1983, and Mad Max: Fury Road in 2015. The previous film on the line-up scored six Academy Awards, and critics are saying his newest installment, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, is a worthy follow-up. However, the prequel isn’t getting quite the same amount of love from critics as its predecessor. At the time of this writing, the movie is up on Rotten Tomatoes with an 87% critics rating after 30 reviews. You can check out what some of the critics are saying below:
“Furiosa is a fine prelude to that mighty arc. Its initial rattling gradually gives way to the robust and satisfying purr of Miller, despite everything, making it work,” Richard Lawson (Vanity Fair) shared.
“You soon reach the point where you’re sick of sand, sick of explosions, sick of off-puttingly sadistic violence, and sick of thunderous drums bashing away on the soundtrack, and yet the film keeps piling on more and more and more of them,” Nicholas Barber (BBC.com) wrote.
“Furiosa is such a thrilling ride, packed with set pieces that are a masterclass in staging action, that it’s a little sad when the plot veers towards the events of the previous movie – because we know that’s where the ride ends,” Liz Shannon Miller (Consequence) explained.
“Furiosa runs on a high-octane philosophical perspective that finds hope in a hopeless place. Also, a lot of cars go fast and shit blows up. It’s a win-win,” David Fear (Rolling Stone) praised.
“Taylor-Joy and Hemsworth are a great pairing and Taylor-Joy is an overwhelmingly convincing action heroine. She sells this sequel,” Peter Bradshaw (Guardian) wrote.
“George Miller has given us a scorching, rip-roaring, and downright breathtaking odyssey that serves his finest work yet,” BJ Colangelo (Slash Film) shared.
“Anya Taylor-Joy is a fierce presence in the title role and Chris Hemsworth is clearly having fun as a gonzo Wasteland warlord, but the mythmaking lacks muscle, just as the action mostly lacks the visual poetry of its predecessor,” David Rooney (Hollywood Reporter) added.
What Is Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga About?
You can read a description of Mad Max: Furiosa here: “As the world fell, young Furiosa is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and falls into the hands of a great Biker Horde led by the Warlord Dementus. Sweeping through the Wasteland, they come across the Citadel presided over by The Immortan Joe. While the two Tyrants war for dominance, Furiosa must survive many trials as she puts together the means to find her way home.”
In addition to Anya Taylor-Joy in the titular role, the film also stars Chris Hemsworth, Tom Burke, Nathan Jones, Angus Sampson, and Quaden Bayles.
“When we wrote Mad Max, the task was to tell a story that was always on the run and to see how much the audience could pick up in passing,” director George Miller previously explained to The AV Club. “That was one of the tricks of Mad Max: Fury Road, that there would be references to things of where she’s from, why they’re doing things, but it was always on the run. There were very few moments of quiet. We never explained how she lost her arm. We never explain what the actual Green Place Of Many Mothers was. We never explained the workings of the Citadel. So we had the screenplay virtually complete before we shot Fury Road, and we did it because it arose out of wanting to explain to everybody who Furiosa was—to Charlize when she took on the role, and to all the actors and the designers and everybody else working on the Citadel and so on. The feeling was, gee, this is a pretty good screenplay, and then I kept saying to myself, ‘If Fury Road works, I’d really like to tell this story.'”
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is currently scheduled to be released in theaters on May 24th.