Any other director would've gone into details of the other tribes, revisited Maxs background and inner demons, his relationships then discussed how it became a wasteland. Miller managed to give you enough for it to be established and concentrated on the important stuff with strong characters, stunning visuals whilst creating an awesome world.

This is why (don't shoot me again) I liked Pacific Rim (minus the love interest) and why Michael Bay isn't as bad as a lot make him out to be IMO, I'm not saying he's a great director or that it's a great movie, they both have major flaws but when shooting action they're throwbacks to the old methods of action films - in that the story is established but isn't over complicated and the action takes point, and they do good action, creating a decent world with a focus on strong actors it's just establishing a story tends to be rather shit. Miller pretty much embarrassed modern directors with this film though, excluding DREDD which is another film that I think managed to stand tall.