The 'Mad Max' universe is currently one of the longest-serving and most easily recognisable movie franchises that is still followed by cinema-lovers all around the globe.
Although today's younger generations of today's fans of cinema may only be familiar with the BAFTA-winning 2015 epic 'Mad Max: Fury Road', the franchise actually dates all the way back to 1979 where we once saw a young Mel Gibson take on the sharp personality of Max Rockatansky.
45 years and 4 cinematic projects later, fans of the franchise are now treated to the long-awaited and highly anticipated origin story to the iconic character of 'Imperator Furiosa', who we were first introduced to via an intense and chilling performance from Charlize Theron in George Miller's 'Mad Max: Fury Road'.
But now the character of Furiosa takes now form through English actress Anya Taylor-Joy, who serves the purpose of portraying a younger version of the character, showing audiences how she came to be one of the most ruthless survivors the wasteland has to offer.
There are always a small handful of things that are guaranteed when it comes to a George Miller 'Mad Max' epic. Some of those being a range of stunning cinematography, transforming costume and character design, and a whole lot of action.
The Australian directors newest chapter in the 'Mad Max' storyline is certainly no different.
It isn't difficult to compare the this movie to it's recent predecessors and immediately infer the fact that they all belong to the same franchise. The way that the golden dunes of the iconic wasteland are filmed makes for some stunning scenery that plays its part as a common theme throughout the franchise.
As previously mentioned, Anya Taylor-Joy is the one headlining the movie as the iconic Imperator Furiosa. The 28-year-old has played her hand exceptionally well across a number of cinematic genres throughout her career, beginning with Robert Eggers' 'The Witch' back in 2015.
But following her turn in George Miller's latest epic, the actress has now written herself into the action hall of fame after just one badass and thrilling portrayal of Furiosa. And although Taylor-Joy is remarkable in this movie and does a whole lot more with only 30 lines of dialogue than you could possibly expect from any actor, it is her co-star Chris Hemsworth who provides us with his best performance of his career so far.
The Australian actor who has primarily been type-cast as the bodybuilder action hero protagonist throughout a number of projects across his career, starting with the quadruple of 'Thor' movies he has starred in over the last decade, shows us that he is capable than a lot more with his portrayal of Dr. Dementus in this film.
Hemsworth turns the volume way up in this movie, not only with his dense over-the-top Australian accent and eccentric personality, but also with the thick layers of prosthetics he worse to fully embody the role of Dementus.
From the first sequence in this movie, Dementus is displayed brilliantly as a dark and horrid character that anyone in the wasteland would be unfortunate to cross paths with. Yet despite the gruesome and cruel things we see him do to some people in this film, us audience members can't help but be amazed at the new level of range that Hemsworth has taken himself to.
If you are a cinema-lover who finds themselves usually reluctant to sitting through movies within the action genre as a whole, like myself, it must be said that there are still many enjoyable elements to this movie that makes it worth watching.
The same can't be said for 'Mad Max: Fury Road' (2015) as that is a production that revolves heavily around the idea of action and much less around the idea of a compelling storyline. But 'Furiosa' is a movie that has a compelling enough and interesting enough storyline that doesn't need to rely too heavily on large cinematic action sequences to get by.
Overall Rating: 7.5/10
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