Furiosa masterfully expands upon Mad Max lore–but how gay is it?

Welcome to How Gay Is It? Out’s review series where, using our state-of-the-art Eggplant Rating System, we determine just how queer some of pop culture's buzziest films and TV shows are! (Editor’s note: this review contains mild spoilers for Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.)

George Miller takes us back to post-apocalyptic Australia with his latest action flick Furiosa!

The new film is a prequel to his last film, the 2015 masterpiece Mad Max: Fury Road, and shows how one of that movie's heroes, the commander of the Citadel's War Rig, Praetorian Furiosa, became the woman we saw her be in that movie.

Much of the time, Furiosa seems like it could be deleted scenes from Fury Road, and that's not a bad thing. Fans of the world created in that movie will be delighted to see more of characters and places like The People Eater, Rictus Erectus, Gastown, The Bullet Farm, and the Organic Mechanic. Miller knows what he's doing, and none of the new lore surrounding these familiar names is a let down at all.

The action scenes are also equal to those in Fury Road, and many of the giant (and small) battle and chase scenes are among the best in recent action movies. Early sequences with Charlee Fraser as Furiosa's mother, Mary Jabassa, are especially riveting. As is a scene where Furiosa's war rig is attacked by raiders using paraglides.

Of course, the world that Miller constructs is just as insanely fun as ever, with new characters including the Octoboss, who travels with a giant octopus kite, Smeg, Dementus's unhinged hype man, and Pissboy, who carries around bottles of piss.

Where the movie doesn't stand up to Fury Road is in the story it tells. While Fury Road is a single there and back again chase scene, Furiosa is several different tales from throughout Furiosa's life.

Anya Taylor-Joy is a worthy successor to Charlize Theron in the role of Furiosa, and Chris Hemsworth is an absolute delight at the erratic and gluttonous villain Dementus. Tom Burke also shines as Praetorian Jack, the first commander of the War Rig before Furiosa takes it over.

However, this movie doesn't have the same emotional resonance with its characters as Fury Road had. Because of that, it doesn't have the direct impact that Fury Road has. It won't stick with viewers in the same way and isn't an all-time classic film in the same way.

Furiosa is a non-stop delight to watch, and features some of the most immersive world-building in any recent movie. Fans of action and unhinged mobs of warriors wearing absurd costumes will have more fun than in any other movie this year.

Now, as a movie starring a female warrior who disguises herself as a boy and comes from a tribe called the Vuvalini, you'd think it might be a fairly gay movie — but how gay is it really?

Unfortunately, there is nothing gay about Furiosa. While the title character is certainly a feminist and bad girl icon, there's nothing to indicate that she, or any other character in this wasteland, is queer.

Where are the gay biker gangs? Several characters have pierced nipples and wear gimp masks and leather, but still, none of it seems to be gay, just a little freaky.

While Furiosa gets three and a half out of five stars as a movie, it gets an unfortunate zero out of five eggplants on Out's Eggplant Rating System...

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is currently playing in theaters.