George Miller’s latest film “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga”, which a prequel to “Mad Max: Fury Road” (2015), is another entertaining entry in its memorable series which was started 45 years ago. Although it does not surpass the greatness of its predecessor, the movie is still awesome and compelling thanks to its confident handling of story, mood, and character, and, above all, action, and we naturally come to stick to the end even though we already know where it will eventually arrive.

Consisting of the five chapters, the movie begins with the childhood years of its titular heroine, who was unforgettably played by Charlize Theron in “Mad Max: Fury Road”. Young Furiosa, played by Alyla Browne here in this film, once lived with her mother in a peaceful community hidden somewhere in the middle of the vast post-apocalyptic wasteland, but then she happened to be kidnapped by a bunch of intruders. For her daughter as well as their community, Furiosa’s mother tracks down these bad guys alone by herself, and the first chapter of the film is quietly intense as observing how she gets close and closer to young Furiosa and her kidnappers.

However, despite the valiant efforts of young Furiosa’s mother, young Furiosa eventually finds herself enslaved by a cruel and loony warlord leader named Dementus (Chris Hemsworth) in addition to experiencing a traumatic incident which will haunt her forever. While things remain quite hopeless for her during next several years, she remains very determined for survival and revenge as before, and she does not hesitate at all when she later comes across an opportunity via one of the key figures in “Mad Max: Fury Road”.

As young Furiosa keeps trying, the movie shows us more of its stark post-apocalyptic world established so well in its predecessor, and Miller and his crew members including cinematographer Simon Duggan did a first-rate job on that. While there are many familiar elements from “Mad Max: Fury Road”, they are presented vividly on the screen with old and new details to observe, and production designer Colin Gibson and costume designer Jenny Beavan, who respectively won an Oscar for “Mad Max: Fury Road”, have another field day as enthusiastically supporting Miller’s distinctive style and vision.

You may lose your patience a bit due to its rather slow narrative pacing, but the movie eventually becomes quite ready to shift its gear for more action when Furiosa later becomes a mostly silent but intense young female warrior who has learned a lot from some tough dude not so far from Tom Hardy’s character in “Mad Max: Fury Road”. Just like Hardy’s character, this dude looks weary and detached in his hardened appearance, but he shows Furiosa some kindness as discerning her considerable potential, and Furiosa, who is now played by Anya Taylor-Joy, finds herself caring more about this unexpected mentor figure than expected, even though both of them know too well that they and many others cannot easily afford affection and compassion in their harsh world.

As Furiosa and her mentor later get themselves involved with a big conflict between Dementus and their current boss, the movie serves us a series of impressive action sequences to behold. While it may be a bit disappointing for you to see that these sequences do not reach to the sheer intensity and ambition of the action scenes in “Mad Max: Fury Road”, they are still gritty and intense enough to hold our attention, and the overall result shows again that Miller is still a master filmmaker who really knows how to thrill and then engage us with action as well as storytelling. The screenplay written by Miller and his co-writer Nico Lathouris is occasionally a little sprawling, but it is succinctly efficient in terms of narrative and characterization, and the movie is quite engaging even when it is not on action mode.

It goes without saying that the movie is constantly driven by the presence and charisma of its heroine. Young performer Alyla Browne, who previously played a small role in Miller’s previous film “Three Thousand Years of Longing” (2022), has enough pluck and spirit to carry the early part of the film, and her solid performance is seamlessly connected with Anya Taylor-Joy, who has kept impressing us during last several years since her breakout turn in Robert Eggers’ “The Witch” (2015). Just like Charlize Theron in “Mad Max: Fury Road”, Taylor-Joy is quite convincing as a strong and resilient woman of action, and we certainly root for her character more as she shows more grit and determination along the story.

Around Browne and Taylor-Joy, several cast members have each own moment to shine. As one of the main villains in the story, Chris Hemsworth gleefully chews every scene of his in the film as required, and you will be certainly satisfied with how Furiosa eventually gets a very juicy payback she will definitely savor for the rest of her life. Tom Burke is somber but somehow touching as Furiosa’s mentor who cares much more than he admits, and the special mention goes to Charlee Fraser, who leaves a brief but striking impression as Furiosa’s strong-willed mother.

While it does not surpass its predecessor, “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” is one of the better action films of this year nonetheless, and it is really fortunate for us that Miller is still working even though he is approaching to 80 at present. He is surely one of the great movie directors of our time, and, though I do not know whether he has another good idea for his monumental series, I will gladly watch whatever will come from him next.