Mad Max: Fury Road was one of my favorite movies of the 2010s. I had never seen the original Mad Max movies and had little to no awareness of what this universe was all about before seeing Fury Road. Rarely have I ever felt so immersed in a new universe in just a short amount of time than when watching Fury Road. Every little detail paints you such a clear picture of what this world is all about.

The George Miller style that has created this incredible universe is so fun. The vibrant colors, the off-the-wall characters, the insane practical action sequences, these movies are made to be summer blockbusters. Furiosa was another great chapter in this franchise that delivered a really good origin story for such a fascinating character.

This is a non-spoiler review.

You get a glimpse of who Furiosa is and what her past was like in Fury Road. However, it was clear that there was a much deeper history that could have earned her the position she was in but also had her wanting to break these slaves free. Furiosa starts off with young Furiosa (played by young Ayla Browne, not Anya Taylor Joy) and explains how she came to be in the employment of Immortan Joe.

This ended up being a much longer period of the movie than I expected with a considerable part of the run time being without the advertised star of the movie, Anya Taylor Joy. However, the story was so compelling that there was no rush to jump ahead to the adult phase of Furiosa’s life.

This period of the film also allowed Chris Hemsworth to steal the spotlight from the start. The man we have grown to love as beautiful superhero Thor or absolutely shredded action hero Tyler Rake in Extraction was a rather ridiculous-looking (and sounding) villain. Before seeing this movie, there was no doubt Chris Hemsworth had the juice and charisma to basically do anything, but it’s always a risk seeing someone take on a role we have never really seen them in before.

My biggest takeaway from Furiosa is that we need more Chris Hemsworth in a villain role. Dementus’ descent into madness as a power-hungry dictator was the movie’s most compelling arc, for me. Hemsworth did a great job of demonstrating why people would follow Dementus but also how power can so easily corrupt you, especially in this society.

This role felt very “Tom Cruise in Collateral” for me. Cruise finally broke type to play a bad guy in Collateral and he ruled so hard. Unfortunately, he never really turned back to that kind of villain role for the rest of his career (so far, unless you count Lex Grossman, of course). I hope we see Hemsworth return to a villain role in the near future because it was a blast seeing him dive into that role.

Overall, this movie never hit the highs that Mad Max: Fury Road hit but that should not take away from how much fun it was. Hemsworth stole the show for me but I thought Anya Taylor Joy did a great job of facial acting and showing what Furiosa was going through with very little dialogue. Also, the crazy side characters are what make this universe so fun like the War Boy who was played by the kid who went viral for being bullied in school a few years ago (what a world).

I will keep riding into Valhalla (shiny and chrome) for as long as George Miller wants to keep making movies in this universe. The world-building and fun action is as good as you will find in any franchise. Definitely go see this in theaters while you still can because these movies were made to be seen on a big screen with a crowd of people.