25 Best Reviewed Franchise Films Of The 21st Century (According To Metacritic)

3. Mad Max: Fury Road (90)

Thirty years after he last visited, George Miller returned to the Wasteland - and there, with his revisiting of his most storied work, he took the Road Warrior to heights unforeseen, crafting a piece of action filmmaking whose anarchic surface and deeper emotion drew universal acclaim.

With Tom Hardy slotting in for Mel Gibson, the Australian auteur delivered a bravura spectacle quite unlike any other seen on the silver-screen, reaffirming himself as a genre maestro - but it was Charlize Theron's dynamite co-lead turn that helped the film smash through awards season.