That is the darkest of angels - the fifth rider of the apocalypse

Continuing my trip up Empire's top 20 films of 2024

#19 :  Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Every few years or so, George Miller decides to unleash a bommy-knocker on the world of cinema. So it is that, nine years after Fury Road, we finally got the long-awaited Furiosa origin story — a rare prequel that enriches and complements its cinematic sibling perfectly. With a different energy and distinct narrative structure, Furiosa sprawls outwards, unspooling hardscrabble chapters in the Wasteland to get under the skin of its title character in surprising and engaging ways — bolstered by excellent turns from Anya Taylor-Joy, and youngster Alyla Browne. Given that Miller is a mastermind director, there are astonishing sequences here — a War Rig raid to rival Fury Road’s greatest moments; a propulsive chase as Furiosa’s mother sets out to recapture her lost daughter; a pulse-pounding assault on the Bullet Farm gone horribly wrong. And thanks to Chris Hemsworth’s deranged Dementus, you don’t even miss Max that much. If it’s not quite up there with Fury Road, it’s still a mad, Miller miracle.

I enjoyed Fury Road (and one day I'll watch the Black & Chrome version, which I suspect will be awesome) and so I'm looking forward to this (and I'm quite surprised I haven't got round to watching it yet).

We start off with a young Furiosa (Alyla Browne) being kidnapped from her home by Dementus (Chris Hemsworth), but promising her mother as she watches her being killed (spoiler alert, but it's pretty signposted) that she'll find her way home - "no matter how long it takes". Well, I wonder what this film is going to involve then?

Well, it probably won't surprise you to hear that, like Fury Road, it involves the most ridiculous action, characters, costumes and locations. There is some plot beyond Furiosa getting older (and, in the process, becoming Anya Taylor-Joy) and attempting to revenge her mother and make it home, but you don't really need to worry about that - just sit back and enjoy the spectacle, because it's really quite the spectacle. It's quite tense and pulls the rug nicely at times - it also gets surprisingly wordy and philosophical towards the end, but don't let that put you off because it doesn't go on for long! And it ties it all up quite nicely in the end - particularly when you read Wikipedia and it reminds you what happened in Fury Road.

Anya and Alyla (how do you pronounce that?) are both excellent as Furiosa - they're both dead behind the eyes yet also really fucking angry all the time. Chris Hemsworth is amusingly, as Empire puts it, deranged - but for me he keeps it the right side of utter lunatic and he's definitely a bad man. Tom Burke is also good as Praetorian Jack, although it's fair to say it doesn't overly stretch his acting skills. This is the fifth time we've seen Tom in something, which probably puts him top - Tilda Swinton is at 4.5 appearances (with the .5 being a voice-only role) and Timothy Chalamet is at 4 appearances, but that might change later this year.

As expected, it's all very well directed with some amazing camera shots throughout including some excellent use of colour - a load of thought and work has gone into this at the minutest level of detail. There's one shot used to indicate the passage of a number of years which is beautifully intricate - and it lasts all of five seconds! There are also some very fine locations involved and some of the stunts are just nuts - all in all, it looks very fine. It's also worth pointing out here that George Miller is 79 years old - this film has so much frenetic action in it that it feels like it's directed by a much younger person (but that's what they said nearly ten years ago about Fury Road).

This isn't a "great" film (it was never going to appear on The Guardian's list) but I thought it was really watchable and entertaining if you like that sort of thing. If you like the Mad Max films and haven't seen this, then you really should (and I'm quite surprised you haven't) - the other series of films I thought of whilst watching this was John Wick because it's pretty violent and utterly ridiculous, but also maintains its own internal logic throughout. So if you like that sort of thing, it's on Apple TV+ to stream or all the usual places to rent - and make sure you watch it on the biggest screen you can because it just looks fabulous.

#20 - Surprisingly entertaining
#18 - A good idea, but...