Back to the wild wasteland

"Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga" is now out in theaters. It's a prequel to one of the best action films of the last decade, 2015's "Mad Max: Fury Road."

While that was a Mad Max film, the character everyone focused on was Imperator Furiosa, played by Charlize Theron. "Furiosa" is her origin story.

It opens with the History Man asking the audience, "As the world falls around us, how must we brave its cruelties?"

Then we find young Furiosa and her friend Valkyrie trying to pick a peach from a tree in the Green Place. Furiosa spies invaders and tries to sabotage them but is caught, kidnapped and taken across the desolate, arid wasteland we are more familiar with in Mad Max films. A place where people are dressed in leather and bondage wear, where it looks like a Burning Man festival gone wrong.

Director George Miller, now 79 years old, has directed all five Mad Max movies, starting with the first one thirty-five years ago. Each one is slightly different from the other but it's good to know this wild and crazy action franchise has remained in his hands.

Furiosa's mother gives chase but she is tortured and killed by the warlord Dementus (an over-the-top Chris Hemsworth with a big prosthetic nose).

Dementus ends up using little Furiosa as a bargaining chip as he negotiates with Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme taking over from Hugh Keays-Bryne). While Chris Hemsworth is a draw for the film, the story only really kicks into gear when Anya Taylor-Joy with her slight frame and giant eyes finally steps into the boots of "Furiosa." Anya Taylor-Joy gets the job done in a very physical role which only has 30 lines of dialogue.

Furiosa escapes the fate of being one of Immortan Joe's war brides, takes on a new identity in the Citadel, all the while having it out for Dementus. She also wants to make it back home to The Green Place.

"Furiosa" plays like a Western, but instead of horses you have motorcycles, rigs, trucks, cars and salvaged machines. Instead of cowboys, you have all manner of freaks in metal, leather and rags. Instead of shotguns, you have improvised weapons.

"Furiosa" is ultimately a story of survival and toughness while trying not to turn into the very monsters who make the world around you a savage circus.