Film Review: Rip-roaring, bombastic, barbaric, beautiful action: What's not to like about Furiosa?

In five individual chapters, Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth go toe-to-toe in the Aussie outback with mechanical monstrosities in abundance

Chris Hemsworth, George Miller and Anya Taylor-Joy attend the "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga" photocall during the 77th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France.

• Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
• ★★★★☆

IF you loved Mad Max: Fury Road, then you won’t be able to stop yourself when it comes to a serving of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, the spectacular continuation of George Miller’s wasteland-set sci-fi series.

In five individual chapters of rip-roaring, bombastic, barbaric, beautiful action, Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth — chewing the scenery for all it's worth — go toe-to-toe in the Aussie outback with mechanical monstrosities in abundance. What’s not to like?

Furiosa does everything its predecessor Mad Max: Fury Road does, and some others even better. One element it delivers on in spades is the visuals. Amongst all the violence there is beauty. Miller has produced another visual masterpiece, A shining example of show don’t tell. The way cinema should be.

“People come out of retirement for George Miller,” says Taylor-Joy, and no wonder. This is no ordinary cinematic undertaking. It’s easy to see why these artists have followed the director back into battle once more.

Stunt work has been a scorching hot topic this year with cries for a new category at the Oscars and the release of The Fall Guy furthering that discourse. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga has once again set the bar almost impossibly high when it comes to stunts. It’s exemplary, much like the craft on display.

Everything you see in the frame serves the story and is painstakingly crafted to fit the world Miller has created, not a thread or bit of material is superfluous.

Despite its almost comical-levels of violence, there’s an inherently playful nature to the brutality of it all. Playfulness has always been Miller’s modus operandi. He made The Witches of Eastwick after all, another film that has fun with its violence. Even when bodies are being impaled and dismembered you can’t help but enjoy it.

According to Miller, Furiosa is a “silent film with sound”, and it’s an appropriate way to sum up the film in many ways, but that’s sound with a capital S. That said, when words are needed they are poetic and often meaningful.

Speaking of silence, Anya Taylor-Joy — who surprisingly doesn’t show up until an hour into her own movie — confirms her star power by giving a powerful performance with very few words. It’s the test of any good actor and she passes that test with flying colors.

Hemsworth’s baddie Doctor Dementus, in one of his more unrecognisable displays, poses the question while kneeling in front of our hero: “Have you got it in you to make it epic?” George Miller says yes. A thousand times yes.