What did you think of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga?

Last Updated on May 28, 2024

Lady and gentlemens, the great George Miller has returned with another Wasteland tale! Listen to his words carefully! The prequel to the Aussie post-apocalyptic action spectacle Mad Max: Fury Road has pulled up into theaters. While Fury Road gave enough of a background on Charlize Theron’s character to get us behind her as a protagonist, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is Miller’s attempt to expand on it even further with a larger scope than the series has seen before.

Reviews for Furiosa have been positive, with a certified fresh critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes with an 89% and an audience score of 93%. Our own Chris Bumbray raved in his review, “Miller’s made this a tactile, visceral experience that drives home the point that at seventy-nine, he’s still a master of his craft and making movies directors forty years his junior wouldn’t have the energy or skill to tackle. It’s not Fury Road, but Furiosa is still pretty damn amazing.” He also emphasizes, “The action and pace of Furiosa are different than Fury Road, as this isn’t a chase film.”

With the achievement that Fury Road became, many people have set their expectations that Miller had approached this film in the same vain (much to the detriment of the first impression of many). However, Miller knew he wouldn’t attempt to one-up Fury Road with this prequel and opted to tell it in a different fashion. In our special interview with the director, he talked about what he wanted to accomplish with Furiosa, “Well, that was the one that was most prepared and that’s the one I most wanted to tell because it was different from Fury Road. If we did just another, all like Fury Road, the fact that it was a saga would be much more. It would be a big contrast to something told sort of almost in real time. There’s sequences told like the two big sequences in Fury Road were almost real time. That first act chase and the last act chase play out in real-time. So that’s a completely different filmmaking exercise than something told over 18 years, and that was much more attractive to me at this point.”

Meanwhile, there is still some waiting from fans on when Max Rockatansky will be making his return. There is a plan for Mad Max: The Wasteland, but delays have been plaguing it. As recently as 2022, Miller described the story as “still not fully evolved.” There is also a novella of The Wasteland that Miller had also written in addition to the screenplay. Miller explained, “We also wrote, not a screenplay, but almost in novel form, Nico Lathouris and I, what happened to Max in that year before (the events of Mad Max: Fury Road), and that’s something that we’ll look at further down the track later.” Since the story is set “before”, Miller has confirmed that the Furiosa character is not involved.

So, what did you think of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga? Is it a worthy entry?