Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (15)

Bookmarked into five chapters with enigmatic titles such as The Pole Of Inaccessibility and Lessons From The Wasteland, director George Miller’s turbo-charged prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road bolts together an origin story for the warrior originally embodied by Charlize Theron.

Portrayed here by Anya Taylor-Joy in womanhood and Alyla Browne as a snarling youngster, Furiosa is anointed “the fifth rider of the apocalypse” as she rampages between the co-dependent strongholds of The Citadel, the Bullet Farm and Gas Town.

The character’s “purposeful savagery” is an apt summation of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga – a brutal tale of self-preservation and retribution punctuated by spectacular action sequences.

Running almost 30 minutes longer than the Oscar-winning Fury Road, Miller’s prequel trundles on narrative exhaust fumes in a plodding middle act, relying on breathlessly staged, large-scale set pieces of automotive carnage for momentum.

The film’s timeline guarantees safe passage for half the cast, whose characters manifest in Fury Road, and spotlights the likeliest casualties in a brutal tug of war for dwindling resources.

Taylor-Joy is glowering and wordless for extended periods and copes magnificently with the rugged physicality of her role. Co-star Browne as the adolescent Furiosa deftly tugs at the heartstrings.

Embellished with a distracting prosthetic nose and prominent codpiece, Chris Hemsworth embraces camp psychosis as an antagonist who tastes young Furiosa’s tears and professes them piquant and zesty.

Ten-year-old Furiosa (Browne) lives in the Green Place of Many Mothers, a hidden enclave of abundance, at a time when “mankind has gone rogue” and food, water and fuel are highly coveted.

A marauding biker gang snatches the girl from her defiant mother, Mary Jabasa (Charlee Fraser), and spirits Furiosa away to their bombastic leader, Warlord Dementus (Hemsworth).

“Make yourself invaluable and Dementus will look after you,” heavily tattooed sage, The History Man (George Shevtsov), counsels.

Furiosa heeds these words and eventually defects to The Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme), who rules The Citadel with feral sons Rictus Erectus (Nathan Jones) and Scrotus (Josh Helman).

As she transitions into womanhood (now played by Taylor-Joy), Furiosa aligns with Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke), who drives a war rig to trade the Citadel’s produce for weaponry and fuel.

Dementus interrupts the vital supply chain and declares war.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga dovetails perfectly with Fury Road, which begins with Furiosa fleeing The Citadel with five of The Immortan Joe’s wives.

From a storyline perspective, the prequel is less compelling, particularly once the title character has manoeuvred herself into a position to wreak revenge.

Production design and costumes are jaw-dropping, completely immersing us in a world where bombastic men reign with cruelty.

They reap what they sow.

DRIVEN MAD: Anya Taylor-Joy as Furiosa in the prequel to the Oscar-winning Mad Max: Fury Road.

Anya Taylor-Joy needs to grow up quickly as Furiosa hits the road and is then captured before finding herself in the clutches of Chris Hemsworth’s Dementus, below.

Chris Hemsworth as hairy biker Warlord Dementus – complete with prosthetic nose.