“You fabulous thing. You crawled out of a pitiless grave, deeper than hell. Only one thing that is going to do that for you. Not hope. Hate. No shame in hate. It’s one of the greatest forces of nature.”

Anya Taylor-Joy has quickly become one of the major rising actresses of the 2020s, rocketing with her performance in Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit in 2020. Landing starring roles in high-budget films such as The Northman, The Menu, and The Super Mario Bros. Movie, she has quickly stapled herself as a strong name to be attached to any film. With The Queen’s Gambit and The Menu being two of my favorite viewing experiences of the past 5 years, I was excited at her casting as titular character Furiosa in the prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road. I was not disappointed. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is an extremely fun watch, taking what made Fury Road so successful and giving the character of Furiosa a worthy backstory. 

While Anya Taylor-Joy was a major selling point of the film, and while I found her performance to be notably pronounced, one actor stood out to me more: Chris Hemsworth. With the uninventive, systemic nature of Marvel films, it can be easy to forget the greatness of the actors cast in those movies. We saw this with Robert Downey Jr. in Oppenheimer. In Furiosa, Hemsworth demands attention in every scene he’s in. He expertly balances Dementus’ charm and leadership with his frustration and anxiety that comes with the position. He’s ruthless, yet alluring; a redeemable, badass dictator. It’s exciting to see these incredible actors who have been resigned to the Marvel loop for years spread their wings and bring to life unique characters.

Furiosa keeps the charm of Mad Max: Fury Road and tries fun new things. While the movie is mostly exciting car chases, there is much more of an intermittent story than in Fury Road. They expand the universe with known characters and locations, showing us much more of the wasteland than seen in Fury Road. They also expand upon the absurdity of the dystopian technology and thankfully don’t pull any punches for realism. During an early car chase scene, they spice things up by adding in crude flying machines and experiment with suicidal airborne warfare, which is a lot of fun.

The film presents a refreshing take (for modern Hollywood) on a romantic subplot between Furiosa and Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke). Jack becomes a mentor and eventual love interest for Furiosa, but we are never shown typical movie signs of a romantic relationship. I kept waiting for the unnecessary sex scene we’ve become accustomed to in modern movies, but surprisingly we are never even shown as much as a kiss between the two. This was refreshing, and the film was able to establish the emotional connection between dialogue and more subtle signs. The film never detoured to ensure the audience knew these two had romantic feelings for each other, rather letting their natural chemistry do the talking.

The viewing experience for Furiosa is a lot of fun. An exciting dystopian setting with unique characteristics and technology, both familiar and new characters, and a story as unforgiving as the universe it’s set in. Accompanied by a stellar cast who do their roles justice, Furiosa is a great addition to the film series and leaves me eager for more stories from the Mad Max universe.

★★★★✩ 4/5