I should be lamenting the sadness of our blockbuster film culture. By next year we will have at MINIMUM six huge sequels, ready to get your dollars. There will be very little attempts from the big studios to create new genre films. I should be angry, and shake my head in disappointment of their continuing lack of imagination for new ideas for big films.

Then I see this trailer for the new Mad Max film and I’m instantly turned into jelly….happiness jelly. Sorry, but when your footage looks THIS good, it’s pretty hard for me to get cynical.

Something  occurred  to me when I was watching this trailer. Next year we will see some very influential films being turned into sequels/reboots. Mad Max.  Star Wars. The Terminator. Jurassic Park. These films represent a major landscape change in pop culture and visual effects. These are movies that influenced future generation of filmmakers. Now those very filmmakers are actually making future installments of those films that influenced them.

J.J. Abrams, Rian Johnson, Gareth Edwards, and Josh Trank are all Star Wars fans and each of them are making a new film in that universe. Colin Trevorrow, a pretty big Jurassic Park fan, is now directing  Jurassic World.

As excited as  I am about those films (Though despite the solid trailer, I still have my worries about Terminator Genisys) this new Mad Max has one uniqueness.

The man behind the camera is no fan, but original Mad Max director George Miller.

Now, he’s been doing just fine the last few years, making Happy Feet movies and such, but there’s a visual hunger in this trailer that really shocks me.

This footage just looks insanely beautiful. There is an energy to this that feels like it’s being made with the passion of a young filmmaker, but George Miller is now a seasoned vet. What I honestly get from this footage is a filmmaker who’s just as giddy to MAKE this movie as much as I am giddy as hell to SEE this film.

I know I have to get adjusted to Tom Hardy in the role now, but he seems to be nailing Max’s attitude. I love seeing how game Charlize Theron is to play in this world.

And that evil mutant gang is just crazy delightful. I’m very happy to hear one of the gang members with a VERY heavy Australian accent, which makes it feel even more like a proper Mad Max film.

That’s really just it. I think George Miller needed the time away from Mad Max to make this film, and with that he’s bringing the right attitude in making it. He’s ready to show how much he’s learned since making the first film (1979!) and he wants to bring all the new tricks at his disposal. Look at how amazing the practical effects looked mixed in the great modern visual effects and camera work. Miller is getting the chance to make all the crazy action he’s been wanting to make, and the results are stupendous.

See, what I think J. J. Abrams and Colin Trevorrow jobs on their films is to emulate the elements that feel like classic Star Wars and Jurassic Park. Which is great! I’m just as excited to see those film for that very reason. But, George Miller isn’t emulating anything. George Miller IS the Mad Max films.

If Miller can deliver the goods, then he’s gonna be influencing a new batch of filmmakers, just like how he did before.

Mad Max: Fury Road is unleashed in theaters May 15, 2015.