BRIAN VINER: Mad Max is a 1,000-watt jolt to the spirits... I loved it!

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (15, 148 mins)

Verdict: Max power 

The only letdown in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, the fifth film in George Miller's Mad Max series, which began in 1979 and made a star of the little-known Mel Gibson, is that it won't propel anyone to stardom.

The two leads, Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth, have a high profile already, although the latter has never been better than he is here as the story's enigmatic baddie.

The film is a worthy prequel to that high-octane 2015 blockbuster Mad Max: Fury Road, which remains one of the best action movies of the last 25 years. This one, similarly, is stunning on the eye, decidedly loud on the ear, and a thousand-watt jolt to the spirits. I loved it.

Taylor-Joy is fabulous in the title role, the warrior queen-to-be, likewise Alyla Browne who plays Furiosa as a girl.

The film is a worthy prequel to that high-octane 2015 blockbuster Mad Max: Fury Road

The film is a worthy prequel to that high-octane 2015 blockbuster Mad Max: Fury Road

Anya Taylor-Joy is fabulous in the title role, the warrior queen-to-be

Anya Taylor-Joy is fabulous in the title role, the warrior queen-to-be

This one, similarly, is stunning on the eye, decidedly loud on the ear, and a thousand-watt jolt to the spirits. I loved it

But as ever the real laurels belong to Miller.

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The veteran Australian director, who doesn't just have oily-rag credits (he also made The Witches Of Eastwick and Babe: Pig In The City), is pushing 80 but is still firmly in command of the petrol-soaked dystopian world he created 45 years ago in the original Mad Max.

At the start, a voiceover tells us that 'gangs are marauding like locusts across the land'. Frankly, it would be disappointing if they weren't. Miller needs marauding gangs like other story-tellers need star-crossed lovers.

Unsubtly, unabashedly, he feeds off classic Westerns such as John Ford's 1956 masterpiece The Searchers to set up the tale of spirited young Furiosa, abducted from a peaceful oasis by raddled Hell's Angels types who find her sabotaging their bikes.

Eventually, with her formidable mother (Charlee Fraser) giving frantic chase across a parched desert, she falls into the hands of the charismatic, messianic warlord Dementus.

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The film is a worthy prequel to that high-octane 2015 blockbuster Mad Max: Fury Road, which remains one of the best action movies of the last 25 years

The film is a worthy prequel to that high-octane 2015 blockbuster Mad Max: Fury Road, which remains one of the best action movies of the last 25 years

At the start, a voiceover tells us that 'gangs are marauding like locusts across the land'

At the start, a voiceover tells us that 'gangs are marauding like locusts across the land'

A scarcely recognisable Hemsworth plays him like a post-apocalyptic Charles Manson, seductively charming when he wants to be, but a sociopath

A scarcely recognisable Hemsworth plays him like a post-apocalyptic Charles Manson, seductively charming when he wants to be, but a sociopath

Unsubtly, unabashedly, he feeds off classic Westerns such as John Ford's 1956 masterpiece The Searchers to set up the tale of spirited young Furiosa, abducted from a peaceful oasis by raddled Hell's Angels types who find her sabotaging their bikes

Unsubtly, unabashedly, he feeds off classic Westerns such as John Ford's 1956 masterpiece The Searchers to set up the tale of spirited young Furiosa, abducted from a peaceful oasis by raddled Hell's Angels types who find her sabotaging their bikes

Furiosa finds a courageous ally, Praetorian Jack (pictured left and played by Tom Burke), who pledges to teach her the secrets of 'road war' as she attempts to escape from this hell-scape and get back to her benign homeland, the Green Place of Many Mothers

Furiosa finds a courageous ally, Praetorian Jack (pictured left and played by Tom Burke), who pledges to teach her the secrets of 'road war' as she attempts to escape from this hell-scape and get back to her benign homeland, the Green Place of Many Mothers

I saw Furiosa last week at Cannes where it went down a storm as any film should that is a crazy hybrid of a Western, a biblical epic, a road trip, a sci-fi fantasy and, of course, Top Gear on steroids

I saw Furiosa last week at Cannes where it went down a storm as any film should that is a crazy hybrid of a Western, a biblical epic, a road trip, a sci-fi fantasy and, of course, Top Gear on steroids

The veteran Australian director George Miller (pictured), who doesn't just have oily-rag credits (he also made The Witches Of Eastwick and Babe: Pig In The City), is pushing 80 but is still firmly in command of the petrol-soaked dystopian world he created 45 years ago in the original Mad Max

The veteran Australian director George Miller (pictured), who doesn't just have oily-rag credits (he also made The Witches Of Eastwick and Babe: Pig In The City), is pushing 80 but is still firmly in command of the petrol-soaked dystopian world he created 45 years ago in the original Mad Max

A scarcely recognisable Hemsworth plays him like a post-apocalyptic Charles Manson, seductively charming when he wants to be, but a sociopath.

Read More

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Furiosa finds a courageous ally, Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke), who pledges to teach her the secrets of 'road war' as she attempts to escape from this hell-scape and get back to her benign homeland, the Green Place of Many Mothers. But she also has a violent grudge against Dementus, not that he knows it.

Anyway, he has his hands full dealing with Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme), whose army of petrol-heads is a match for his own as they both seek to control the Wasteland, as it is quite reasonably known.

I saw Furiosa last week at Cannes where it went down a storm as any film should that is a crazy hybrid of a Western, a biblical epic, a road trip, a sci-fi fantasy and, of course, Top Gear on steroids.

A longer review of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga ran last week. Furiosa, Hit Man and Garfield are in cinemas now.

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