First of all—the new Mad Max rules! And Charlize Theron rocks as a kick-ass heroine! She steals the movie.

Normally, I’m not a huge sci-fi fan, but Mad Max has so many elements of Viking lore and practices built into not just the plot, but also the visuals, that I was thoroughly enthralled. This is the kind of action-packed adventure where you are holding your breath for a majority of the time. Either that or cringing for the same-old same-old knee-jerk reaction to a scene only to be slack jawed when what happens is NOT at all what I expected.

A ton of movies these days rely on Viking lore. There was Yggdrasil, the Viking tree of life, in James Cameron’s Avatar. In The Mask, Jim Carey plays a man who finds a mask that gives him thee powers of the Norse God, Loki. The theme of Valhalla reigns in Max Max. And these are just a few examples.

The long and short of it is that if you want a breathless action adventure—go see the new Mad Max!