But in 2015, Miller returned to the franchise that put him on the map with the Oscar-nominated ‘Mad Max: Fury Road‘, which recast the title character with Tom Hardy and introduced Charlize Theron as fan-favorite Furiosa.
In honor of the new film, Moviefone is counting down every movie that George Miller has ever directed, including his latest.
Note: For this list, we are only including Miller’s theatrical films as a director, and not his documentary ‘40,000 Years of Dreaming‘, or ‘Babe‘, which he only produced and co-wrote.
1998’s ‘Babe: Pig in the City’. Photo: Universal Pictures.
Babe, fresh from his victory in the sheepherding contest, returns to Farmer Hoggett’s farm, but after Farmer Hoggett (James Cromwell) is injured and unable to work, Babe has to go to the big city to save the farm.
2011’s ‘Happy Feet Two’. Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures.
Mumble (Elijah Wood) the penguin has a problem: his son Erik (Elizabeth Daily), who is reluctant to dance, encounters The Mighty Sven (Hank Azaria), a penguin who can fly! Things get worse for Mumble when the world is shaken by powerful forces, causing him to brings together the penguin nations and their allies to set things right.
(L to R) Susan Sarandon, Zack O’Malley Greenburg and Nick Nolte in ‘Lorenzo’s Oil’. Photo: Universal Pictures.
Augusto (Nick Nolte) and Michaela Odone (Susan Sarandon) are dealt a cruel blow by fate when their five-year-old son Lorenzo (Zack O’Malley Greenburg) is diagnosed with a rare and incurable disease. But the Odones’ persistence and faith leads to an unorthodox cure which saves their boy and re-writes medical history.
Mel Gibson in ‘Mad Max’. Photo: Roadshow Film Distributors.
In the ravaged near-future, a savage motorcycle gang rules the road. Terrorizing innocent civilians while tearing up the streets, the ruthless gang laughs in the face of a police force hell-bent on stopping them.
Jack Nicholson in ‘The Witches of Eastwick’. Photo: Warner Bros.
Three single women (Susan Sarandon, Cher and Michelle Pfeiffer) in a picturesque Rhode Island village have their wishes granted – at a cost – when a mysterious and flamboyant man (Jack Nicholson) arrives in their lives.
Mel Gibson in ‘Mad Max 2’. Photo: Roadshow Film Distributors.
Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson) returns as the heroic loner who drives the dusty roads of a postapocalyptic Australian Outback in an unending search for gasoline. Arrayed against him and the other scraggly defendants of a fuel-depot encampment are the bizarre warriors commanded by the charismatic Lord Humungus (Kjell Nilsson), a violent leader whose scruples are as barren as the surrounding landscape.
As the world falls, young Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy) is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers into the hands of a great biker horde led by the warlord Dementus (Chris Hemsworth). Sweeping through the wasteland, they encounter the citadel presided over by Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme). The two tyrants wage war for dominance, and Furiosa must survive many trials as she puts together the means to find her way home.
2006’s ‘Happy Feet’. Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures.
Into the world of the Emperor Penguins, who find their soul mates through song, a penguin (Elijah Wood) is born who cannot sing. But he can tap dance something fierce!
Dr Alithea Binnie (Tilda Swinton) is an academic – content with life and a creature of reason. While in Istanbul attending a conference, she happens to encounter a Djinn (Idris Elba) who offers her three wishes in exchange for his freedom. This presents two problems. First, she doubts that he is real and second, because she is a scholar of story and mythology, she knows all the cautionary tales of wishes gone wrong. The Djinn pleads his case by telling her fantastical stories of his past. Eventually she is beguiled and makes a wish that surprises them both.
Charlize Theron in ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’. Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures.
An apocalyptic story set in the furthest reaches of our planet, in a stark desert landscape where humanity is broken, and most everyone is crazed fighting for the necessities of life. Within this world exist two rebels on the run who just might be able to restore order.
Returning to the cinematic world he created, filmmaker George Miller once again delivers an exciting and thrilling adventure, which acts as both a prequel and a spinoff to ‘Fury Road’. While ‘Furiosa’ is more character driven than its predecessor it still features the same level of visually stunning action sequences, which are enhanced this time around by the character development. Both Alyla Browne and Anya Taylor-Joy give extremely strong performances as Furiosa, but it is Chris Hemsworth in his first truly great post ‘Thor’ performance as the evil yet hysterically funny biker villain, Dementus.
Beginning decades before ‘Fury Road’, the film first introduces us to a young Furiosa (Browne), who lives in a secret eutopia far away from the Wasteland called the Green Place of Many Mothers. When bikers accidentally come across their home, Furiosa bravely warns her people, but is abruptly kidnapped by the bikers and taken to their leader, the Warlord Dementus (Hemsworth). After a desperate rescue attempt by her mother (Charlee Fraser) fails, Furiosa is raised by Dementus so he can gain her trust and discover the location of her home to take it for his own.
Dementus soon sets his sights on taking over the Citadel from its leader, Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme). But when his first attempt fails, he negotiates what he wants from Joe in exchange for Furiosa, who will be groomed as a wife to breed. After the exchange, Furiosa (now Taylor-Joy) eventually escapes and meets a transporter, or a Road Warrior if you will, named Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke). Jack agrees to teach her his ways in exchange for her help transporting goods for Immortan Joe and as time passes, she slowly becomes the character we remember from ‘Fury Road’, albeit a slightly younger version. But, when Dementus and his biker horde wage war on Immortan Joe, it gives Furiosa her chance at revenge and possibly finally returning home.
To be fair, I’ve never been a huge fan of the ‘Mad Max’ franchise. The first two films, ‘Mad Max’ and ‘Mad Max 2’ were a little too slow for me. ‘Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome’ injected more humor into the franchise and therefore was a bit more enjoyable. Miller certainly reinvented the franchise with ‘Fury Road’, which I enjoyed but not as much as most. The action was incredible and visually beautiful to watch, but the story was complicated and the characters, while interesting, were not explored or developed enough for me to ultimately care.
That is not the case with ‘Furiosa’ as Miller really takes his time to tell the title character’s backstory and develop not only her, but Hemsworth’s villain and Burke’s Jack as well. By the end of the movie, you really care about the characters and what happens to them. That only adds to the excitement of the action sequences, which in some ways are better than the last film. Miller has truly created a captivating world, and ‘Furiosa’ allows him to explore it in a way he never has before.
Miller out does himself this time with a barrage of stunning, high-octane action sequences that rival what was seen in ‘Fury Road.’ Along with his cinematographer Simon Duggan, Miller conceives grand, sweeping master shots of the desolate Wasteland while also serving up metal-crashing explosive action sequences. One such scene involves a big rig truck barreling through the desert at top speeds while being attacked by bikers and hybrid helicopter-bikes. It’s unlike anything we’ve seen before from Miller in this universe and ups the action from the previous installments.
Alyla Browne and Anya Taylor-Joy are both excellent as Furiosa and give a seamless performance together. However, it is worth noting that they equally share the role, and Taylor-Joy does not appear until the halfway mark. Once she does, her dialogue is limited, but the actress excels at expressing her emotions physically or with just a quick look. Taylor-Joy transforms into the basic character we know from ‘Fury Road’ quite well, and in the end is a dead ringer for Theron’s version. She also has great chemistry with Burke, and I’m glad they gave Furiosa an alley to relate to and care for.
But it is Browne who carries much of the film, and really builds the character for Taylor-Joy to take over. Browne creates a believably strong character and lays the groundwork for what is to come. The young actress is great opposite Hemsworth, making Furiosa and Dementus’ volatile relationship fun to watch.
While he was unarguably great in the MCU movies, Chris Hemsworth has struggled ever since to find a role that fit him quite as well as Thor. He has had some success with the ‘Extraction’ movies, but not since ‘Avengers: Endgame’ has he really been able to tap into both his physical strength and his surprising comedic abilities … until now.
Dementus is the perfect Chris Hemsworth role! It allows him to be physically imposing, over-the-top funny, and as evil as he wants to be. The actor plays the character with an evil charm and a sadistic humor but is also physically believable in his action sequences. While Browne and Taylor-Joy might be the heart of the movie, Hemsworth steals every scene he’s in and may now be the best villain in the ‘Mad Max’ franchise.
The film’s ending does beg questions about how this connects to ‘Fury Road’ and the future of the franchise, but it doesn’t take away from the emotionally affective and visually exciting theatrical experience the audience has just had. And at just over two and half hours, I can honestly say that it never felt long and kept my attention throughout.
In the end, ‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’ is an exciting, action-packed, character driven film that succeeds on most levels. Director George Miller has created another visually stunning action adventure, that really takes its time to set up the characters and build on the world from the previous films. While Alyla Browne and Anya Taylor-Joy are wonderful together as the title character, Chris Hemsworth brings the action and the fun in one of his finest roles to date.
‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’ receives 8.5 out of 10 stars.
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What is the plot of ‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’?
Set 15 to 20 years before the events of ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’, as the world falls apart, young Furiosa (Alyla Browne) is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and into the hands of a Biker Horde led by the Warlord Dementus (Chris Hemsworth). While two Tyrants war for dominance over the Citadel, an older Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy) survives many trials as she plots a way back home through the Wasteland.
