Furiosa Is One Of The Best Prequels Ever Made & It’s Time To Start Being Honest About It

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When Mad Max: Fury Road came out in 2015, it was a huge surprise hit. While the original Mad Max films were popular, no one anticipated that a sequel, after a thirty-year gap, would be the best movie in the series. In fact, Mad Max: Fury Road is now considered one of the all-time great action films. A major reason for its success is the character of Furiosa, played by Charlize Theron, who quickly became a fan favorite and sparked a desire to see more of her story.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga explores the backstory of the character Furiosa. However, the film arrived almost ten years after the previous installment, and its box office performance was disappointing. It earned around $174 million globally, despite costing $168 million to make – a significant setback given the popularity of Mad Max: Fury Road.

Regardless of why Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga didn’t succeed at the box office, it’s quickly becoming recognized as one of the best prequels ever created. Just two years after it came out, many are now seeing it as a brilliant, yet underappreciated, modern classic – and with good reason.

Furiosa Is A Fantastic Standalone Film

Some viewers are now seeing Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga less favorably because it didn’t perform well at the box office. However, a movie’s commercial failure doesn’t necessarily reflect its quality. In fact, critics have generally given Furiosa positive reviews. While it hasn’t reached the same critical heights as the previous Mad Max film – which received ten Academy Award nominations – its reception is comparable to other movies in the series.

With a 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is receiving high praise, matching the score of the original Mad Max and coming close to Mad Max 2. Notably, it has significantly more reviews than those earlier films. Given the strong reputation of those classics, Furiosa deserves similar recognition. It’s also performing much better than Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, which is generally considered the weakest installment in the series, even though that film is still enjoyable.

Beyond critical praise, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga also resonated with general audiences. While it didn’t draw huge crowds to cinemas, its 88% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes demonstrates it’s a genuinely enjoyable film. Interestingly, this is the highest audience score of any film in the Mad Max franchise, surpassing even Mad Max: Fury Road by two points. Ultimately, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is a well-received and successful movie.

Furiosa Doesn’t Force Connections To Mad Max: Fury Road

Unlike many prequels, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga avoids forcing connections to Mad Max: Fury Road. A common problem with prequels is that they overemphasize setting things up for future movies. Solo: A Star Wars Story is a good example – while enjoyable, it felt crammed with explanations for things like Han Solo’s name, his bond with Chewbacca, and the details inside the Millennium Falcon, all happening in a very short time.

Some prequels focus too much on simply showing familiar things from a new angle, rather than being strong films on their own. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga avoids this. We learn about Furiosa’s past and how she lost her arm, but these details feel organic to the story. They unfold naturally over time and don’t feel artificially inserted just for fans.

Anya Taylor-Joy & Chris Hemsworth Are Brilliant

Charlize Theron became a leading action star with films like Mad Max: Fury Road, The Old Guard, and Atomic Blonde. Her portrayal of Furiosa was so iconic that Anya Taylor-Joy faced high expectations taking on the role. Fortunately, Taylor-Joy delivered, and her performance in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is considered one of her best. Critics have overwhelmingly praised her work in the film.

Anya Taylor-Joy is incredibly believable in action roles and delivers a stunning performance, which is a major reason why Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is so good. However, she’s not the only standout – Chris Hemsworth almost steals the show. Audiences are accustomed to Hemsworth playing the charming hero Thor, so seeing him as the villain, Dementus, is surprisingly effective. Many are calling Dementus one of the best action villains in recent years, and that’s because Hemsworth fully embodies a truly awful and despicable character.

Other Great Prequels To Consider

When judging Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga as one of the best prequel movies, it’s helpful to compare it to other strong examples. While the Star Wars franchise has a few good prequels, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story often stands out as the best. It’s visually impressive, introduces compelling new characters, effectively sets up future storylines, and even led to a spin-off series widely considered one of the best Star Wars projects in decades.

Recent years have given us some fantastic prequels, like the horror film Pearl, the animated Transformers One, and Prey, which revitalized the Predator series. Superhero fans enjoyed X-Men: First Class, and Ouija: Origin of Evil was a standout horror prequel. While many consider The Godfather Part II the best prequel ever made (even though it’s also a sequel!), Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is definitely among the greatest.

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2026-05-19 00:10