After watching the Mad Max Film, I wanted to go home, put a colander on my head, blast some rock music and break a cricket bat over my knee.

The reality was that I don’t know where or what a colander is, it was quite late so I didn’t want to wake the neighbors with loud music and the only cricket bat I have is a plastic one from a kids’ summer sports kit. My plan didn’t quite transpire but escapism is a wonderful thing.

For the first 30 minutes of the film you descend rapidly into psychopathy.

Things just get faster and more exhilarating with no let up. It sort of defies the usual Hollywood format where something exiting happens in the beginning, then there are subsequent moments of reflection, then we resume protocol. The film resumes a regular pattern towards the middle and end but you still walk out of the film feeling like it went nought to 60 in first few seconds and very rarely lifted the foot off the pedal.

If you were starting to think that this sound like a boys club where they violently kill one another and drive very fast, highly grotesque, steampunk-esk vehicles then you would be right. However,  the boys club is chaired by a radical female hero. (That’s right, I used the masculine noun. Because in this film, there is no distinction.)

Charlize Theron’s performance makes Imperator Furiosa less of a siren and more of a beautiful fog horn.

Her radiance is exquisitely untouchable. In a film that bleeds hyperactivity, her character and her performance is wonderfully underplayed. There is probably even an argument too suggest that Furiosa is more of leading character than Max. For instance, just look at the film poster. Why is she positioned in front of Mad Max?

Hardy’s performance is similarly restrained. Subtle twitches and vocal alterations tell us he unhinged. Then it is left to his balls out action sequences to solidify his ‘mad’ character. The only thing that the leaves me optimistically disappointed is all the allusion Max’s past. Especially in the beginning, Max is haunted by visions of his past.

They are never really explained but they could just be seeds to keep our engines turning over until a sequel or prequel.

There are comic books out there detailing the prequel to the film but as much I as can appreciate a comic book, it’s not going to compare to the cinematic experience.

Inyay ummarySay

Rating: Upper 8/10

• If you have a hankering for good old scraps, metal and adrenaline but you don’t know your way around a car and have very little interest in harming other human beings, then this will be a great watch for you.