The answer? A resounding YES!! ‘Furiosa’ (with its silly clarifier “A Mad Max Saga”) is the rare prequel that effectively fleshes out its main character and the world of its progenitor, “Mad Max: Fury Road”. It’s so good and so compelling to be back that the film justifies its existence even as it suffers the same fate as every other prequel. Of course audiences familiar with the 2015 classic know where this story leads, but like the best roller coaster, big budget spectacles, it’s all about the journey.

‘Furiosa’ is structured in five parts or chapters each titled in that inimitable George Miller way, esoteric to the world he has created. What a world it is, upping the ante from his defining ‘Mad Max’ films set in a post-apocalyptic, morality-starved, desert wasteland environment, populated by physically and psychologically diseased characters obsessed with the V8 engine. This film centers on the breakout star character introduced in ‘Fury Road’ via a Charlize Theron performance that redefined the action star as equal parts tough, driving, and empathetic. Writer/Director Miller provides Furiosa with an epic backstory using two stellar young actresses (Alyla Browne & Anya Taylor-Joy at different ages), some familiar faces (Immortan Joe and his cadre of mutates and Warboys), a Mad Max stand-in as mentor (Tom Burke), and an absolutely unhinged Chris Hemsworth with a prosthetic nose as Dementus, a type of villain yet unseen in the franchise.

It’s Dementus’s gang that kicks off the narrative by kidnapping young Furiosa from her land of abundance, “The Green Place”. This sets off the first of many intricately designed chase sequences and action set pieces, each specifically calibrated to the plot of the story. In this case, Furiosa’s mother (a methodically determined Charlee Fraser) takes after the kidnappers, first on horseback, then on motorcycles whose riders she has sniped, and then rigged from the parts of other bikes abandoned through her assassinations. Subsequent bravura scenes are also structured around specific progressions of the narrative as opposed to ‘Fury Road’, where the chase actually IS the narrative. Of course, audiences know that Furiosa will never return to “The Green Place”, so these early scenes are clouded with inevitable dread, culminating in the introduction of Hemsworth’s Dementus and Furiosa’s enslavement as an unobtainable symbol of health and vitality, a “full-life” to the mutated denizens of the wasteland.

It’s truly striking to witness the dichotomy of the Dementus character and Hemsworth’s portrayal. In addition to his physical screen presence, the actor has often proved his impeccable comic chops, but here not only does he display both, he uses these skills to create a charismatic menace who is also utterly incompetent. It’s through his efforts to settle his nomadic following, an enormous mobile biker gang, that the economy of the three wasteland citadels hinted at in “Fury” is completely fleshed out. How this unfolds is best left to experience, but basically every success bestowed upon him comes at a bungling price, equal parts hilarious and mortifying.

Unlike the wandering, gunslinger-like Max in the previous films, Furiosa is an agent of change. She seems to be at the clandestine center of much of the story turns, especially when the character is played by Taylor-Joy. Similar to Max, her dialogue is terse and purposeful, but for long stretches she is silent, sometimes only her expressive eyes indicating her thoughts and feelings. It is truly a proto-version of what Theron is doing in “Fury” – as the movie progresses, the hardening of the character shapes into focus through the amazing performances of both actresses. Despite the innate toughness and increasingly numbing reaction to the grotesqueries Furiosa is subject and exposed to, there remains a core of determination and patience that logically leads to her eventual endgame. It’s so much so that when the ending leads directly into the events of “Fury Road”, it’s actually a welcome sign when clips of that movie play out over the credits.

It’s always a strange feeling to actually want to be entertained in Miller’s “Mad Max” universe. As bleak and unrelenting as it is, the talented director and world-builder has created a vibrant tapestry to work in. The unique designs of the vehicles and costumes defy logic while also seeming to be fully functional. As fantastical as much of what unfolds in “Furiosa” really is, it taps into that very human drive to innovate mechanically, a unique aspect of our species that leads to progress, but in Miller’s telling also leads to ruin no matter how cool everything looks . . .

Directed By: George Miller

Written By: George Miller & Nick Lathouris

Rated: R

Running Time: 148 min.

* * * * (out of four stars) – OR – A