As a prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road, Furiosa hits the mark as an epic slab of mythology, but doesn’t quite match the propulsive, sheer inventive magic of its parent film.

Anya Taylor-Joy and Ayla Browne share the role of Furiosa, brought so vividly to life by Charlize Theron in Fury Road. Charting the course of around 15 years, the story follows her rise from tragic victim to hardened survivor in the Wasteland.

Both actresses do a wonderful job, and Taylor-Joy’s piercing blue eyes gleam magnificently with intelligence and determination through a black visage of dust and grease paint. It’s the most effective visual in a film brimming with high-octane set-pieces.

Chris Hemsworth as Dementus, a warlord who steals young Furiosa from a green paradise, and perhaps cares for her in his own twisted way, also snugly fits right in with George Miller’s campy apocalyptic world. 

The other filmic elements are all there too, and it can be an enthralling action film. But somehow all the notes George Miller conjures seem to struggle to harmonise this time around. It could be its distended story and indulgent runtime, which sometimes slows proceedings to a long crawl, blunting the effect of everything else. Or it could be, as is the nature with many prequels, the lack of a compelling core; rather than revealing more to Furiosa’s character, we simply wait for what we know must happen for it to flow logically into Fury Road’s much more sharply orchestrated story. 

3.5 Stars out of 5