Once upon a time, the idea of a movie about Furiosa—the character Charlize Theron played so memorably in Mad Max: Fury Road—seemed like a great idea. Something to look forward to! A return to George Miller’s terrifying vision of the desert!
The trailers, alas, have been less than inspiring.
The latest trailer is very much in line with the first, full of explosions, cool-looking action sequences, and the all-too-common prequel tendency to want to overexplain things that do not need explaining. But would we know this was really Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy) if we didn’t see how she lost her arm, cut her hair, and painted her forehead black?
It’s a rhetorical question. Of course we would. Just like we would have understood Han Solo’s name just fine without some random official deciding that because he was alone, his last name would be Solo.
Chris Hemsworth joins Taylor-Joy here and, yes, has a very dubious fake nose. Alyla Browne and Tom Burke also star, a long with a lot of motorbikes and trucks and explosions and shots of the desert. Here’s the synopsis:
As the world fell, young Furiosa is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and falls into the hands of a great Biker Horde led by the Warlord Dementus. Sweeping through the Wasteland, they come across the Citadel presided over by The Immortan Joe. While the two Tyrants war for dominance, Furiosa must survive many trials as she puts together the means to find her way home.
Furiosa is co-written by Miller and Nico Lathouris (who co-wrote Fury Road). A whole posse of Fury Road Oscar winners also worked behind the scenes: production designer Colin Gibson, editor Margaret Sixel, sound mixer Ben Osmo, costume designer Jenny Beavan and makeup designer Lesley Vanderwalt.
Furiosa rides into theaters May 24th.
