Anya Taylor-Joy is Furiosa in this Mad Max Saga [© 2024 Warner Bros. Feature Productions Pty Limited and Domain Pictures, LLC]

FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA
Directed by George Miller
Certificate: 15
☆☆☆

LOOK – you know what you are going to get, so it would be splitting hairs to say this new offering from the post-apocalyptic Aussie outback is basically one very long, very violent chase through the desert among sun-sozzled punks driving highly impractical vehicles.

Mad Max – that’s what you want and that’s what you get.

A plot of sorts focuses on a child called Furiosa, who is kidnapped by a gang of sense-stunted bikers.

They carry her away from her Eden-like existence and her mother gives chase – not only to recapture her child, but to kill each biker so they cannot reveal the secret location of the land of abundance.

Warlord Dementus (Chris Hemsworth bringing a dollop of Thor-like shtick) brings up the little girl as he tries to get her to show him where she comes from.

If we are in a chaotic world where civilization has broken down completely, and resources such as fossil fuels are scarce, why would these three war tribes design the most gas-guzzling array of vehicles they could find?

They may look excellent and be the stars of the film, but it would have helped with jollying the viewer along if the future vision had paid just a little bit of lip service to making it a hop of imagination instead of a galactic leap.

This film is long. Directors often think length equals epic, and this saga could happily have lost an act.

And then there is a series of plots for us to grapple with – none of which are substantially explored – featuring the kidnapping and revenge of Furiosa, a three-part war between desperado groups, a quest for an Eden that has somehow managed to avoid the climate breakdown, a relationship between Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy) and truck-driving Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke) that may or may not be wasteland love.

Miller gives us storyline carrots but they remain dangling. None are explored or completed to any real degree.

No matter.

Mad Max is a eyeball-frazzling watch that follows in the adventive tradition of the previous movies, and is a wholly more enjoyable end-of-civilisation tale than bleaker and this-could-happen offerings such as The Road.

It is a remarkable piece of production, with solid performances across the board but best of all, the costumes, makeup and sets are stupendous.