Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) Directed by George Miller. Starring: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult. IMDB says: “In a stark desert landscape where humanity is broken, two rebels just might be able to restore order: Max, a man of action and of few words, and Furiosa, a woman of action who is looking to make it back to her childhood homeland.”

Mad Max: Fury Road is a movie that will embody all of the adjectives it’s slammed with to the fullest extent. I can say that it’s an audacious spectacle but the weight of those words doesn’t come close to the reality. It’s crazy in a way that it shouldn’t be nearly as relatable or as universally likable as it is but its madness is endearing and something we have been missing from a theater experience. Fury Road is exactly what the summer blockbuster season needs. Even with the movie’s franchise background, it’s so peculiar and incredibly bizarre that it doesn’t feel like its rehashing anything. If feels original and different in a way that no blockbuster has in quite some time. I didn’t realize how much I missed that feeling. That feeling of discovery, that feeling of genuine surprise.

While Fury Road is essentially a road movie disguised as a car chase action flick, the core plot line is a bit more intriguing than one might expect. Main character Max (Tom Hardy) is a man driven solely by survival instinct and troubled by both past regrets and present dangers. Through a serious of ludicrous events Max crosses paths with the equally conflicted Furiosa (Charlize Theron) who is on a mission to help a group of enslaved women escape the rule of Immortan Joe, the dictator of the Citadel – one of the world’s last remaining communities. Furiosa is a character that turns out to be every bit an equal to Max both in story and in the pain delivery/ badass department. This is a welcome surprise to the standard action movie narrative that allows the viewer to root for the pair to join forces against a bigger evil.

But are we here for the post-apocalyptic struggle? Maybe. But the drama takes a backseat to the glorious action. Everything in Fury Road is so visually arresting and utterly bizarre yet the movie still manages to walk a seemingly impossible line of realistic drama and pure insanity. Praise here goes to director George Miller’s all-encompassing vision of this broken world that is incredibly detailed at every possible visual opportunity. Whether it’s an extra’s deformity seen in a crowd or a mind-boggling weapon attached to a car, there is always something grabbing you and demanding your attention. It’s explosions and severed limbs and heavy metal and it’s awesome.

I have to urge everyone to check out Mad Max: Fury Road in theaters. If you miss it, then maybe you should reevaluate your life goals. Although I also have to issue a warning: Please be advised that you WILL leave the theater with a sudden desire to murder people with your car, add spikes to your door panels and shave your head.