It’s been nine years since Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron starred in George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road.
The critically acclaimed Oscar-winning blockbuster has gone down as one of the greatest action movies of all time, even being voted the best movie of the 21st century by Empire readers.
Now the director has returned with a prequel focused on Theron’s character Imperator Furiosa, this time played by Anya Taylor-Joy in the post-apocalyptic world of Mad Max.
Chris Hemsworth co-stars as the warlord Dementus in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, which received a 7 minute standing ovation at its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival last night.
Now the first reviews are in and it sounds like Miller has largely repeated the success of Fury Road with 88 per cent positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes so far, including some glowing 5 star reviews.
Daily Mail
It is utterly stunning on the eye, decidedly loud on the ear, and a thousand-watt jolt to the spirits. I loved it.
The Guardian
This is a film made with purposeful savagery, and with considerable wit and lyricism, too. It has the concentrated intensity of 2015’s Fury Road, to which it is a prequel, and yet it unfolds across a far broader canvas.
Empire
The chassis may look familiar but there is a very different engine driving Furiosa from that of Fury Road: it’s a rich, sprawling epic that only strengthens and deepens the Max-mythology. It shall ride eternal!
Total Film
This action franchise set in sun-blasted sandscapes is evergreen. A special place in Valhalla awaits George Miller.
Daily Telegraph
The film may handle differently to its predecessor, but it’s clearly been tuned by the same engineers. After the pared-down drag racer, here comes the juggernaut.
New York Times
Miller is such a wildly inventive filmmaker that it’s been easy to forget that he keeps making movies about the end of life as we know it… It’s only with Furiosa that I now understand he’s also one kick-ass prophet of doom.
Rolling Stones
Furiosa runs on a high-octane philosophical perspective that finds hope in a hopeless place. Also, a lot of cars go fast and s*** blows up. It’s a win-win.
Screen Rant
Anya Taylor-Joy and Alyla Browne fully embody Furiosa at different stages in the engrossing Mad Max prequel, which fleshes out The Wasteland more.
Deadline
This is the best screenplay of any Mad Max film, with much to say… Furiosa has the goods.
However, not all the reviews were as positive.
Vanity Fair
Furiosa is a fine prelude to that mighty arc. Its initial rattling gradually gives way to the robust and satisfying purr of Miller, despite everything, making it work.
Hollywood Reporter
Anya Taylor-Joy is a fierce presence in the title role and Chris Hemsworth is clearly having fun as a gonzo Wasteland warlord, but the mythmaking lacks muscle, just as the action mostly lacks the visual poetry of its predecessor.
Variety
It all adds up to is a movie that can be darkly bedazzling, and that will be embraced and defended in a dozen passionate ways — but it’s one that, to me, falls very short of being a “Mad Max” home run.
BBC
You soon reach the point where you’re sick of sand, sick of explosions, sick of off-puttingly sadistic violence, and sick of thunderous drums bashing away on the soundtrack, and yet the film keeps piling on more and more and more of them.
The Times
A thundering beginning and a searing sense of place fail to compensate for the wearisome repetition and empty theatrics that slowly swamp this much-awaited blockbuster.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga hits UK cinemas on May 24, 2024.