The continuation of the extended mythology of warrior Max Rockatansky’s brutal universe underwhelmed audiences but looks for a resurgence with its 4K debut in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, rated R, 148 minutes, 2:39:1 aspect ratio, $49.98).
Filmmaker George Miller’s origin story of his legendary female Imperator of “Mad Max: Fury Road” takes place in a post-apocalyptic Australia, turned into a dangerous wasteland run by warlords.
Viewers meet a young Furiosa (Alyla Browne), who is taken by the Biker Horde minions of Dementus (Chris Hemsworth) while she lives with her mother and tribe in the Green Place of Many Mothers, a lush land that supports agriculture.
After the warlord crucifies her mother and a failed rescue attempt, Furiosa becomes the unwilling adopted daughter of Dementus.
As a prisoner of the future lord of Gas Town, Furiosa gets stuck in the middle of the conflict between Dementus and Citadel boss Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme), becoming barter between the lunatics.
Eventually traded to Immortan Joe, an older Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy) learns the ways of a rig driver as the apprentice to Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke) while slowly plotting her revenge against Dementus.
As expected, the grisly violence, extreme vehicular battles and close-quarter fights concocted by Mr. Miller and his team are visually exhilarating, with the characters’ antics taking place among Gas Town, Bullet Town and the water-rich Citadel.
Mr. Miller has created a rich mythology nearly impressive as any superhero universe, and it’s too bad it took him nine years to deliver “Furiosa.” I have to believe any potential theater audience forgot what they loved about “Fury Road.”
Hopefully he gets a chance to continue the franchise with the yet fully developed though reported “Mad Max: The Wasteland.”
4K in action: The presentation boasts a native 4K transfer shot on Arri Alexa 65 digital cameras to deliver rich color and detail to every cinematic choice made by Mr. Miller and cinematographer Simon Duggan.
Moments to savor amid the scorched red-and-yellow earth overwhelming scenes include a sandstorm blowing in and covering the screen as a motorcycle rider drives toward Dementus’ lair, and one of Immortan Joe’s War Boys sliding down a rope and launching himself to the ground to explode in fiery orange hues.
Also, falling under the category of odd but visually impactful, is looking inside of a tanker to view a War Pup dwarf in complete white makeup bloodied by a hole in his head while surrounded by green heads of lettuce and veggies.
Crisp details can be found in shots such as Furiosa’s eyeball mirroring her mother being crucified and killed, Dementus eating a sausage as he’s bathed in deep-blue moonlight and the fine lettering on the body, face and tunic of the History Man.
My only regret is that the film was not presented in an Imax aspect ratio to fully appreciate the punch in the face-style extreme action.
Best extras: A beefy collection of digital goodies starts with a 47-minute documentary that has all key cast and crew discussing the film and its creation.
Most interesting is footage of the actors exploring their characters and stories with Mr. Miller in a roundtable atmosphere; the on location reminiscing about shooting around Broken Hill, Australia, for “Furiosa” (41 years ago. Mr. Miler shot “Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior” in the same area); and learning it took four months of analysis, rewrites and rehearsal to play out the final conflict between Dementus and Furiosa.
The long segment also touches on weapons, costume design outfitting outrageous survivalist gear and garb, make-up design, designs on Gas Town and Bullet Farm, advances in digital pre-viz storyboarding, musical composition and sound design.
Next, viewers get 14 minutes with production designer Colin Gibson and his vehicular creations all made from found objects. He covers building highly customized motorbikes, super trucks and vehicles, Dementus’ tri-cycle chariot and specifics down to a gear stick made out of a femur and the metallic mural pressed on the curved body of a war rig tanker.
As informative is another 11-minute extra exploring the stowaway action sequence set on the war rig tanker that required 200 stunt people and 197 shots that was completed over nine months.
The sequence features bombing mortifiers on parachutes dragged by motorcycles and a final Zeppelin-like “Octoboss” smashing into the rear of the tanker and its “Bommy Knocker” (a drill with spinning spiked balls and a bowling ball attached).
Finally, viewers also get, two 11-minute character breakdowns on Dementus and Furiosa as explained by each actor, the director and costars.
• Joseph Szadkowski can be reached at jszadkowski@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.