Mad Max: Fury Road gives you wings. I returned home at exactly midnight after viewing the post-apocalyptic action film. Blood still pumping, I did the laundry, vacuumed the floor, read through my entire comic book collection, wrote two bestsellers, and baked a large pizza.

I glanced at the clock, and it was only thirty minutes past twelve.

The dynamic Fury Road flame-guitar riffs still burning in my head, I wrote a sustainable Palestinian/Israeli peace plan, translated the Voynich Manuscript, singlehandedly engineered a Harley, figured out which planet Amir Liaquat is from, and finally located missing Malaysian Airlines plane MH370 (Hint: it’s on the same planet as Liaquat) before the night was over.

Fury Road fever has similarly gripped other viewers of the film, though with varying symptoms. How else can you explain the ferociousness with which feminists and meninists are arguing over the film? (On a side note, what the heck is a meninist? As men, we already have everything. Your job was done before it started. Go home.)

George Miller returns to deliver an apocalyptic fantasy in Mad Max: Fury Road

Whether Mad Max: Fury Road is a feminist film or not is debatable, but the film certainly has some strong female characters. Starring as Imperator Furiosa is Charlize Theron, a one-armed mercenary who can snipe you from a mile away across the grimy horizon, and leads the forces of a warlord through the desert.

This warlord, Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne), who looks like Krang from the Ninja Turtles cartoon, rules in a desolate future where mankind is close to extinction after a nuclear war that has all but eradicated the world’s water resources. Now, like any good warlord, Immortan Joe, controls his followers through fear, power, good old-fashioned religious propaganda, and the currency of this post-apocalyptic future: water.

Without giving too much away, Imperator Furiosa steals some very important assets from Immortan Joe, later joining forces with the road warrior himself, ‘Mad’ Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy) as she is chased by his goons across the sometimes dark desert highway, dusty wind in her hair. Here, our jaws drop as we are treated to one breathtaking action sequence after another, some simply ingenious in their execution.

The production values here are extraordinary. Junkie XL, who is reportedly composing the new film theme for Batman, offers a wicked soundtrack. Fury Road is also gorgeous to look at, featuring beautiful cinematography, and costume design out of a metal head’s wet dream.

Ask yourself, when crafted well, what is the best part of an action film? If you said explosions, gunplay, hand to hand combat, scantily clad women bathing in the parched desert, or dangerous old ladies wearing leather armour, then congratulations you freak, Fury Road has all of these elements and more.

But the answer I was looking for was ‘car chase sequences’, something upon which the box office juggernaut, the Fast & Furious franchise is based. Remarkably, the two-hour long Mad Max: Fury Road is almost entirely one long vehicular chase sequence.

A chase sequence so entertaining, so perfect, that by comparison, the entire Fast & Furious franchise comes across as a mechanical pony ride at the amusement park. More remarkably, Fury Road offers an interesting story, features strong characterisation, humour, and offers both philosophical and social commentary. It is masterful filmmaking for Fury Road to be so fluidly multilayered when its reported $150 million budget was spent on things going ka-boom.

It is always a cause for concern when a beloved old franchise is revived after a long period, but returning George Miller to the driver’s seat was the right move for Australian Film Production Company. At the age of 70, the veteran filmmaker has certainly not lost any steps. In fact, he has learned a few new ones. Perhaps the film’s title refers to George himself, for you’d have to be mad to pull off a film as outlandish as this.

Rated R for intense sequences of violence throughout, and for disturbing images

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, May 31st, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play