A thundering beginning and a searing sense of place fail to compensate for the wearisome repetition and empty theatrics that slowly swamp this much-awaited blockbuster. It’s a prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road, and an origin tale for a breakout character: Charlize Theron’s lethal henchwoman, Imperator Furiosa. It also, alas, falls squarely into the Disney Cruella trap by veering away from narrative originality and concerning itself only with superfluous backstory. Yes, it’s nice to know exactly how Furiosa acquired her bionic arm, just as it was nice to know why Cruella hated dalmatians. But that’s simply not enough to sustain two and a half hours of nihilistic Wacky Races.
It starts well, though, with expectations of mythic grandeur as the preteen Furiosa (Alyla
