Textbook example of perfect world building, of perfect pacing, and just how giving in to the delusions of an old, insane Australian doctor can really pay off sometimes. This is one of those movies that just constantly reminds you of how cool just the concept of movies are - a bunch of still photos played in this sequence of cars driving, flipping, jumping, and exploding, as presented in a way that makes each beat the most exciting thing in the world. It really does have the feel of an incredibly early adventure film - not just the way things are ever so slight sped up, but in the way that so much of the information about the world is communicated to us mostly through visuals, through the framing of the camera and the efficiency of the editing. The plot of the movie could really be boiled down to five or six little cards spliced into certain moments in the film.

Regardless of that simplicity, Miller has managed to make something that is often overwhelming, a feature length action film that really feels like no other movie in the genre, even the ones that preceded it in its own franchise. Visually it's much harsher than any of the others, and comes off as far more operatic. In this day and age, the villains also have to be far more sinister than they have been in the past. It would not have served to really make any of them likeable or cool in the way that Master Blaster, Auntie Entity, Lord Humungus, and Toe Cutter are. Instead, Immortan Joe and his family are lecherous, disgusting parasites who hoard water and women, and relish in the chaos and horror that they are perpetuating. The only sympathetic ones are the War Boys, who are mostly young men who have been led astray and raised to worship the idea of being fodder for the military industrial complex. Nicholas Holt is underappreciated as Nux in this I think - watch the scene in which he reflects on his life laying down with Capable and tell me the dude isn't an amazing actor.

Every moment of the movie, every little action beat and split second decision made by the characters, feels like it was meticulously planned by George Miller and his excellent crew. There's not one millisecond of this movie that feels accidental, in a way that is nearly impossible to achieve in a movie of this scale. It's all so deliberate and exact, it's more like it was composed rather than directed. Without every element working in tandem the way they are - the music, the visuals, the acting, the editing - the whole thing would fall apart. But Miller was so dedicated that he fought through many years of production troubles to make this movie exactly the way he wanted, and for my money that all paid off big time.