Character driven, believable, pulse driving (spoiler free review)

Rating: 10/10 (30 May 2015)

The characters: First of all you should know that this movie is character driven as opposed to story driven. The characters' individual journeys, how they are developed over the course of the story, are very thought through and, although some of them will seem flat at first, they soon start to grow and change into individual personalities.
The setting: It explores the base human instincts in an unforgiving world with little comfort, where survival is the everyday struggle. It brilliantly portrays, through acting and directing, the insanity that affects this worlds inhabitants, and how their desperation to survive drives them to believe in anything that they're told that gives them hope.
The art direction: The visuals are stunning. Miller allegedly wanted the movie to be colourful because he thought that, in a world such as this, humans will try to gather every scrap of beauty they can find to try and make their hard lives a little more bearable. This coupled with the amazing Namibian desert makes for an impactful picture.
The acting: The portrayal of the different characters in the movie is fantastic. Even the supporting cast has memorable personalities that are conveyed through a few simple actions - The adaptable survivor, the long term thinking life lover, the weak one searching for security, the brave protector. And these are just supporting characters. The main characters are equally brilliant, and thanks to actors with a proved track record these are brought to life in a great way that makes their emotions your own - hopelessness, desperation, anguish.
The action: Here's one important aspect. The action will drive your pulse through the roof. From almost the very start the high pace will have you gripping your seat. An acquaintance of mine measured their pulse while watching the movie and was apparently doing heavy cardio excercise while sitting down. If you watch this in a movie theater you'll hear the audience gasp for air between the action sequences. It's like a roller coaster ride, and I'm not exaggerating.
Lastly I want to explain how I rate movies. I give them a number from 1 to 10 based on my initial feeling and then I go over the movie and try to find things worth retracting points for. In this case the initial impression was so good, and after analysing it I decided that neither of the two things that made me go "huh?" while watching the movie was worth retracting points for.
I will definitely watch this movie again and this is one of those few instances where I'll be getting a copy to put on my shelf as well.