Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (4k UHD + Digital HD)
Blu-Ray Reviews | Aug 19th, 2024
Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Burke, Alyla Browne, Lachy Hulme, John Howard
Written By: George Miller, Nico Lathouris
Directed By: George Miller
Studio: Warner Bros.
Buy On Amazon.com
George Miller is back with a prequel I didn’t think we needed. I was wrong! Furiosa adds on the lunacy and fun of Mad Max: Fury Road with a prequel about Furiosa.
The movie is about a young Furiosa (younger Furiosa: Alyla Browne, older: Anya Taylor-Joy) is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and taken to a nasty biker group led by the Warlord Dementus (Chris Hemsworth). Dementus and his horde run into the Citadel presided over by The Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme) and the two duel it out. Meanwhile, Furiosa grows up in the Wasteland and tries to stay alive so she can escape back to the Green Place of Many Mothers.
Miller’s return to the dystopian future was a delight to watch. Just to see Chris Hemsworth be an insane, funny, charismatic, “cartoon, mustache twirling” villain but also a delight to see Anya Taylor-Joy be a badass like Charlize Theron was in Fury Road. I honestly didn’t think the story was warranted when I heard this was coming out but happy I was wrong because I liked the prequel just as much as Fury Road. I still think that’s the best Mad Max movie of the franchise but this is close behind.
Another surprise was seeing Tom Burke’s Praetorian Jack character being so damn likable. Unfortunately, not sure we’d get a spinoff movie for him. It was like having a Max-like character in the movie without being Max. Besides a few actors, this is mainly Anya and Chris’s movie. Not sure why Miller wanted Chris to wear this strange nose the entire time. Maybe they didn’t want him to be too recognizable?
Besides acting, the direction was on point as usual with some weird camera shots but the action was great. I thought some of the CGI or computer things were noticeable for some reason or you could tell they were filming in a Mandalorian-like sphere. The score from Junkie XL was awesome again as well. The score definitely adds to the intensity of the movie. I liked how he used some cues from Fury Road, and used some instruments to sound like heavy duty engines.
The 4k UHD special features are pretty great. There’s an almost hour long featurette behind the scenes of the movie with Highway to Valhalla: In Pursuit of Furiosa . “Darkest Angel: Anya Taylor-Joy as Furiosa” is one about Anya becoming Furiosa which was cool to see. There’s a featurette on Chris Hemsworth finding the voice of Dementus and the character traits of him. There’s one or two more after that but the main thing is the Highway to Valhalla featurette which you just don’t see on most discs these days. It’s usually a few minutes of fluff.
Furiosa was robbed at the box office and should have been more successful like Fury Road was. I think it will find its audience on streaming and video because I think it deserves it. It’s a prequel of a badass woman in the Wasteland, and just a gritty revenge story to boot. Watch this!
Features:
Highway to Valhalla: In Pursuit of Furiosa
Darkest Angel: Anya Taylor-Joy as Furiosa
Motorbike Messiah: Chris Hemsworth as Dementus
Furiosa: Stowaway to Nowhere
Metal Beasts & Holy Motors
Video:
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Audio:
English: Dolby Atmos
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
French: Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
Audio descriptive
Subtitles:
English SDH, French, Spanish
Bottom Line: The second best Mad Max Saga movie
Running Time: 148 mins
Rating: R
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating:
