The chase scenes start immediately. Within seconds, the rumbling of V8s and the sight of frightening nightmare vehicles bearing down on a hapless runner flare in the theatre. The music and sound effects are low key for this first one, though. This first chase is so nonchalant it sets a striking tone for the rest of the movie. Yes, this is a pivotal chase scene, yes, there is a violent crash, no, this is not unusual. In the Mad Max universe, this is perfectly normal.

Mad Max is Artaudian cinema with a healthy dose of shock and awe.

When I tell you Mad Max: Fury Road is intense I’m employing every ounce of understatement I can muster. Too often in movie land these days the trailer gives away all the best bits. If you’ve seen the trailers, chances are you’ve seen all the best scenes already. Not so here. There is so much packed into this film that the trailers barely scratch the surface of the action.

It is frenetic and unrelenting action punctuated by the sort of clipped, limited dialogue that has long been a hallmark of Australian cinema – an industry in which director George Miller is a mountain. Mad Max is Artaudian cinema with a healthy dose of shock and awe. The makeup and costuming is grotesque and revolting, ensuring that even the calm moments are unsettling and dystopian.

Ever since the first Mad Max film, Miller has used BDSM and kink culture tropes as a code for depravity and to dehumanize his characters. These techniques are politically problematic but they are effective. It’s one of the many things that tie the four films together.

In the first few, gasoline was the commodity the world had gone mad for; in this one, it’s water. That means there’s a little more room for excessive fuel burning, flame outs and even a flaming fuel-powered electric guitar. Don’t get me wrong, we’re all winners when flames are happening, but surely fuel isn’t so plentiful you can go burning it hilariously in the air for funsies?

Mad Max fans will recognize and connect with more than a few familiar references. The infamous (and apparently invincible) Interceptor is back, of course, the music box makes an appearance, and a few more we won’t spoil because spoilers suck. Sadly the metal boomerang doesn’t make an appearance.

This edition was filmed mostly in Namibia after unseasonal rain rendered Australia too green, and it benefits from it. The stark African desert is more barren, more foreboding and more intense than what Australia has to offer and the jump to an African filming location seems to sink the Mad Max universe even further into decay.

The driving scenes are nuanced. There’s very little of the flash and bang “20 gear change, 40 steering correction” style of stunt driving, but there is a pretty epic J-turn and a few other neat tricks. The result is a welcome and unexpected realism that makes it easier to suspend belief when the less realistic action kicks in. Realism is clearly important to Miller, who pays attention to small details; like someone getting sick and having to be relieved from duty after mouth-siphoning too much petrol, or having to back off and let an over-stressed engine cool after you’ve sprayed fuel down the supercharged scoop to get a momentary boost of power.

With just the right blend of realism and insanity there is room to be genuinely impressed by the riding/driving/stunt work, because a lot of it is beautifully executed with only the minimum of CGI.

The acting is perfectly measured. Even Megan Gale is strong in her small role.

Nicholas Hoult has to cover a wide range with his character’s development and does so convincingly. Tom Hardy had big shoes to fill and filled them superbly. As an Australian with a keen love of Australian cinema though, I could see one or two moments when he struggled to nail the quiet stoicism Miller wrote into Max. Those were overshadowed by one moment when he got it absolutely on point, drawing a strong reaction from the pre-screening audience.

Charlize Theron is spectacular and really anchors the whole cast with her flawless performance giving Furiosa a compelling and intimidating potency while at the same time making her engaging and accessible for the audience.

The surprise of the film was Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, whose representation of an oppressed “wife” turned lioness was – to overuse a word – intense.

Mad Max aficionados will no doubt find things to nitpick over – these four films have the loosest definition of continuity in the history of film – but most will be satisfied with what’s presented.

To give you some idea of where it sits, this one could be read as a continuation from Mad Max 2, or a reimagining of Beyond Thunderdome. If you, like me, would like that Tina Turner edition excised from the record, this film effectively replaces it with a better, more interesting, less rubbish version.

Newcomers to the Mad Max universe will love the high-intensity action, the simple but intriguing storyline and will likely be intrigued by the whole post-apocalyptic car world concept.

My group included a few in their early 20s who’d never seen any Mad Max film before, and they all said they planned to go watch the first three after seeing this one. Maybe I should have warned them….

Fury Road is violent, but much of the truly horrific violence happens just off screen, so it’s more thriller than gore fest. The impact is intensified by the slight offset, with more of an emotional and visceral reaction than pure gore alone could extract.

The sexual violence prevalent in the first two films is thankfully missing, demonstrating perhaps how far we’ve come as a cinema-going society since the ‘80s.

Aside from that welcome omission, Mad Max: Fury Road delivers on everything a devotee could ask for. The explosions and wanton destruction would make Michael Bay blush, and the ever-present sound of gurgling, supercharged V8 engines is an orchestral feast.

The fourth Mad Max movie is as wild as the three before it combined. On steroids. “Intense” barely scratches the dust-covered, blood-soaked surface.