With Hollywood’s constant stream of remakes, revivals, revamps, and reimaginings this year, eventually something was bound to go right.  But I don’t think anyone expected “Mad Max: Fury Road” to be that something.

The stars were aligned. From the moment the trailer hit screens across the globe it seemed as though the film was destined to be a flop of colossal proportions. Having never heard of how the original was the “Citizen Kane” of its genre, this movie looked as though it was going to be the new Transformers, targeted at a male audience eager for blood and explosions.

In a way, this is what happened. “Fury Road” was one long action sequence, complete with exploding cars, faces getting pulled off, and a guy who played a flamethrower guitar. Here’s the weird thing, though: “Mad Max” was fantastic. It was massively entertaining, with awesome, oddball characters (guitar guy!) and didn’t once lose our interest.

The movie begins with the titular character being kidnapped by a barbaric tribe called the War Boys, and being diagnosed a “universal blood donor” for members of the tribe. He then gets caught up in a woman’s, named Imperator Furiosa, quest to save women who are being used for breeding by the leader of the War Boys.

The mad escape of Furiosa is what drives “Fury Road’s” plot. Max escapes his captors and assists Furiosa in saving the women, and this is essentially the rest of the film. A two-hour action sequence, with minimal dialogue and maximum action. When movies go this route (never letting up on the action) they take a huge gamble: the movie could become dull extremely quickly. However, “Mad Max” didn’t fall into this hole. It was a thrill to watch the whole way through.

Minimal dialogue also helped the film in a big way. Too much exposition would feel like extra baggage in a movie like this, and the lack of talking helped with that. However, there wasn’t too little exposition, either. Every big decision felt sufficiently explained, yet was still left open to viewer interpretation.

In a way, “Mad Max: Fury Road” is different from other blockbusters. While its characters, striking visual style and action are all superb, its biggest asset is that you can think about it after watching it. And in an age where you have to go to art house, Cannes picks to see intelligence in movies and where blockbusters are all too shallow, a smart blockbuster is all the more valuable.