Director: George Miller

Stars: Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Burke, Ayla Browne, Lachy Hume

George Miller’s prequel to his austerely plotted, highly effective actioner 2015’s ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ is a messier and more sprawling affair, which charts the origin of the fearsome Furiosa, who was played in the earlier picture by Charlize Theron.

We are introduced to the character as a ten-year-old (played by Ayla Browne) living in the idyllic, verdant Green Place of Many Mothers district with her mother. She is abducted and taken to the lair of eccentric warlord Dementus (Hemsworth replete with a silly false hooter and speaking in a nasal Australian ocker accent) who leads his men around in a chariot driven by three motorbikes. Despite his attempts to get the location of Green Place of Many Mothers out of Furiosa, she keeps schtum.

Dementus is also determined to seize the Citadel, the resources-rich stronghold of Immortan Joe (Hulme), tyrant and Furiosa’s future boss. Joe is guarded by the fearsome, white-painted War Boys.

Later, the grown-up and shaven-headed Furiosa (Taylor-Joy) goes undercover as a man and plots her revenge.

There is a lot of lore-dumping here, some of it delivered in part in sonorous slightly naff tones, which slows the film down over an extended two-and-a-half-hour running time, as well as some semi-effective musings about the cyclical nature of revenge.

Still, there are excellent crunchy action sequences scattered throughout, even if they are a bit more reliant on CGI this time around, including an extraordinary centrepiece in which Furiosa and new acquaintance, the good-hearted Road Warrior Praetorian Jack (Burke) drive a huge rig across the desert while fighting off a band of marauders.

Simon Duggan’s cinematography delivers some feverish imagery, while investing the New South Wales environs with a real epic sweep.

Despite only having a handful of lines Taylor-Joy makes her mark via intense stares with those eyes framed by axle grease.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is released 22nd May

David Willoughby

Follow David on Twitter @DWill_Crackfilm