Mad Max: Fury Road is one of the most delightfully insane, action packed and downright enthralling movies I’ve ever seen. A very, very high bar has officially been set for Summer 2015.

The first Mad Max film in thirty years (since 1985’s Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome), it may be surprising to hear that Max himself (portrayed by Tom Hardy, filling the iconic shoulderpads of Mel Gibson) is not the hero of this story.

Instead, the movie is more the tale of Imperator Furiosa, a one-armed, facepainted bad-ass (Charlize Theron). Furiosa is a driver for the War Boys, one of the cults that have taken over the post-apocalyptic desert that is the world. Under the guise of a gasoline collection trip, Furiosa hops in her war rig and seeks to remove the “Five Wives" - five young “queens" (read: sex slaves) betrothed to the War Boys leader, the horrific King Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne) - from their plight and take them to freedom.

How does Max get involved in this mess? By being in the wrong place at the wrong time. At the beginning of the film, Max (having PTSD visions of poor decisions in his past) is kidnapped by the War Boys, and due to his having a universal donor blood type is quickly strapped to the sickly Nux (Nicholas Hoult). Nux becomes one of the many War Boys sent in pursuit of Furiosa, complete with his personal blood bag (Max) attached by a combination IV-drip and chain.

What follows is one of the most unbelievable action films I’ve ever seen. Essentially a two-hour chase sequence, Mad Max: Fury Road is a glorious cacophony of fire, spikes, explosions, wheels, speed and insanity. Full of surreal sights (such as a truck made up of speakers, with a full set of war drums in the back, and a guitarist performing in the front - why YES, the guitar DOES shoot flame), jaw-dropping stunts, and some of the best action choreography ever put to the big screen, Fury Road puts countless films to shame.

And who would’ve thought the source? Director George Miller, now 70 years old, returns to the franchise that made his career after fourteen years of false starts. You may believe that focusing on the Babe and Happy Feet franchises (plus a short-lived trip into doing a Justice League movie, cancelled days before production began) would’ve made Miller soft with age, but here, he drops the mic, essentially asking the rest of the action filmmaking world “Can you top this?“

Dialogue is relatively sparse through the film, our characters sketched more by their actions than their words, but it works across the board. Seeing Furiosa become an incredible leader is just as effective as seeing Max’s transformation from a distrusting wild dog to a proper hero through the course of the film. Even the Five Wives (portrayed by Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Riley Keough, ZoÁ« Kravitz, Abbey Lee, and Courtney Eaton) get subtle arcs of their own, where in other films, you’d expect them to be painted with the same brush.

What’s really interesting? For a movie set in a dying world, Mad Max: Fury Road contains amazing life in every frame. You can tell the film was a concept artists dream, with incredible costumes, memorable creatures, horrific versions of humanity and stunning landscapes filling the screen.

Fury Road re-defines the Mad Max franchise for a new generation while setting a new bar for action filmmaking to come. It’s art as blockbuster entertainment, and I can’t wait to watch it again and again. See it immediately.