Anya Taylor-Joy is Badass Bringing Female Rage and Revenge to Furiosa

Like most fans, I was introduced to this franchise by the sheer presence of  Mel Gibson and the late Tina Turner in 1985 with Max Max Beyond Thunderdome.  It was raw, gritty, wild, humourous in part, yet visually eye-catching in a manner cinema fans would be enthralled.

Now, in 2024, George Miller has continued the franchise as a prequel where young Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy), is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and has fallen into the hands of a great biker horde led by the warlord Dr. Dementus (Chris Hemsworth). Sweeping through the Wasteland, they come across the Citadel, presided over by the Immortan Joe (Lacy Hulme), and as the two tyrants fight for dominance, Furiosa soon finds herself in a nonstop battle to make her way home.

Broken down into chapters, the film starts with a slightly biblical black and white Garden of Eden nod (picking fruit off a tree)and continuing with Furiosa’s Mom  on a cross for execution.  Chock full of creative imaginary with shadows, mirroring in eyes, insane production and sound design, director George Miller shared at a recent IMAX screening in Los Angeles, “This movie was written as we were preparing for Fury Road and in order to the tell the story cohesively we had to learn everything that happened in the time before.  So, we wrote the story of Imperator Furiosa from the time she was taken as a child and also wrote a story of Max in the year before when we meet in in Fury Road.  One ended up as a novela – Wasteland (this one) and the other Fury Road, so everyone got the screenplay of both, otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to make the story cohesive.”

Anya Taylor-Joy was born to be an action hero.  Taking the reigns from Charlize Theron (Fury Road) Joy, and with very with minimal dialogue, she is engaging while kicking butt of every male protagonist within her path.  Her younger counterpart Alyla Browne is holding it down with both  proving that women in leads at the box office can most definitely translate into box office success and interest from the masses.  As we continue to shout from the top of our lungs – representation matters and so does the unapologetic expression of female rage.  Especially living in today’s world where women’s voices are continuously challenged and attempts are being made on the regular to silence us in every way possible.

Not to be outdone by the women, Hemsworth, with a teddy bear chained to his body in various iterations,  is giving mastery character work along with physical prowess that we have seen him display in the past.  Yet, this time, he has taken it up a notch to say the least in this post-apocalyptic world where civilization barely exists.

Audience members who have never seen Mad Max will be a little lost making it difficult to follow the storyline.  However, those who are fully engrossed and familiar will cheer loud and hard for Furiosa and her quest for revenge and independence.