FURIOSA
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“Furiosa” First Reactions Hail Another Super-Charged Stunner

May 7, 2024
By The Credits

Nine years after George Miller’s more or less flawless Mad Max: Fury Road introduced an unbelievable Charlize Theron as Furiosa, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, the origin story of how Theron’s one-armed warrior supreme came to be, is racing toward theaters. And with its swiftly approaching premiere date comes the first reactions to Miller’s follow-up, the fifth film in his decades-spanning Mad Max dystopian mega-narrative.

While we’ll have to wait a bit longer for the full reviews, the embargo for social media reactions has been lifted, and the unifying theme between them all is that Miller has cooked up another super-charged action epic. Anya Taylor-Joy has stepped into the role of the younger Furiosa, with Miller’s new film focused on how she became the fearsome and fearless liberator we came to know in Fury Road. Here, she has to battle against the man who obliterated her childhood and took away her beloved mother, Chris Hemsworth’s Warlord Dementus.

“Powerhouse action filmmaking at its absolute best,” writes Fandango‘s Erik Davis.

IndieWire‘s David Ehrlich points out that Furiosa has the courage to be a different kind of movie than Fury Road while still delivering an absolute smashing time.

Furiosa takes us back to that original sin committed against her as a child when she was snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and ended up in the snares of Dementus, the leader of the great Biker Horde. This crime sets into motion her years-long struggle against the lunatics roaming the vast wasteland and vying for supremacy in a broken world. 

Critic Simon Thompson (The Wrap, Variety, etc.) enthuses that Furiosa somehow seems even too big for the IMAX format:

Miller’s latest is set 45 years after the collapse of society and details how the young Furiosa managed to become a master of all things mechanical and survive a war between Warlord Dementus and Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme). 

Furiosa’s exploits in Fury Road were significant—risking life and what was left of her limbs to free a gaggle of female prisoners from Immortan Joe, the sadistic ruler of the citadel. In Furiosa, it seems Immortan Joe, being the enemy of her enemy, might prove himself to be a friend of sorts to our heroine. 

Once again, Miller directs from a script he wrote alongside his Fury Road co-writer Nick Lathouris, and he’s built the world of Furiosa with plenty more Fury Road alums, including production designer Colin Gibson, costume designer Jenny Beavan, and makeup designer Lesley Vanderwalt, each of whom won an Oscar for their work on Fury Road.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga revs into theaters on May 24, 2024:

For more on Furiosa, check out these stories:

Anya Taylor-Joy Forges Her Path in Explosive New “Furiosa” Trailer

“Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” Reveals a Younger (But Still Psychotic) Immortan Joe

“Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” Drops its Scorching First Trailer

Featured image: Caption: Anya Taylor-Joy as Furiosa in Warner Bros. Pictures’ action adventure “FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Jasin Boland

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The Credits

The Credits is an online magazine that tells the story behind the story to celebrate our large and diverse creative community. Focusing on profiles of below-the-line filmmakers, The Credits celebrates the often uncelebrated individuals who are indispensable to the films and TV shows we love.