As the film opens, we see Tom Hardy's Mad Max staring towards a wasteland stretching all around him. As he talks about the dystopian world he is caught in, a lizard with two heads quietly crawls towards him. Without missing a beat, Max crushes it with his foot and pops it in his mouth. Yeah, it is that kind of a film. Director George Miller (don't be fooled by his past record of directing Happy Feet and Babe) took 30 years to re-energise a franchise he started in the '70s and trust us, the film is worth the wait.

Fury Road is a relentless, action-packed assault, with not a seeming nanosecond to spare when it comes to crash-and-burn chases involving vehicles that look like they were forged in the Devil's own backyard. In this post-apocalyptic fable of reconstruction, Immortan (Byrne) rules from an HQ that looks like a steampunk junkie's dream dominion. Immortan's lackeys (War Boys) resemble zombies and are slavishly devoted to him.

There are two sorts of people who are eager to watch Mad Max: Fury Road - those who harbour a lust-fuelled interest in Tom Hardy, and geeks who have been waiting 30 years for the follow-up to Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. The rest might wonder what's the big deal about a reboot that has hellish jalopies and Charlize Theron at her most unglamorous. Here's the answer: Mad Max: Fury Road could well be the best film that will come out of Hollywood in 2015. Skip it because you don't care for dust, grubby men, almost-bald women and/ or action movies, and you'll have missed greatness.