Categories: Movie Reviews

Mad Max: Fury Road – Blu-ray Movie Review

Synopsis

In the future, Earth has become a barren wasteland. Surviving humans live in factions battling each other for resources and fighting just to survive. Rogue warrior Max (Hardy) is captured by Immortan Joe to be used as a source of blood for wounded fighters. When he is taken out on a mission, he breaks free and joins up with Furiosa (Theron). She is trying to rescue several Breeders, women whose sole purpose is to bear children for the faction’s leader, and take them to the Green Place. Max and another warrior named Nux (Hoult) decide to help the women reclaim their home and their freedom. But they’ll have to battle through tremendous odds to succeed.

Specifications

Warner Brothers
2015, Color, Rated R, 2 Hrs
Dolby Atmos, 2.40:1 Aspect Ratio
Starring: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult
Directed by George Miller

Rating

Entertainment:

Video:

Audio:

Extras:

Violence: Extreme
Sex: No
Language: No

Commentary

The plot of Mad Max: Fury Road is but a thin backdrop to two hours of nearly non-stop action. What’s important here are the brilliantly choreographed battle scenes, the cool car and truck designs and all the clever ways humans have found to engage each other in vehicular combat. All the action scenes were filmed live with minimal CGI added in post-production. This movie is quite a testament to Hollywood stuntmen and the risks they’re willing take to get a shot right.

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The story is nothing that hasn’t been done many times before: people fighting for resources, corrupt leaders abusing their subjects and scrappy young warriors struggling to move up in the political hierarchy. But all of that takes a backseat to the battles. They’re borderline exhausting both in sight and in sound. When you sit down to watch this one, make sure you have a really large bowl of popcorn because you won’t want to pause the movie to make more!

Technical

The image is super-sharp, incredibly saturated (especially in red tones) and displays very high contrast. My only beef pertains to a choice made by the filmmakers. Many scenes, especially wide shots, appear to stutter as if there are frames being dropped. I wondered if I had a defective disc and I even checked the settings on my player and projector. After a little research I learned that this stuttering is in the original film and used to speed up the action. Personally I found it distracting but overall the movie is a visual feast.

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For years I’ve used the Transformer films to demo my home theater system. I’ll be switching to Mad Max: Fury Road from now on. The Dolby Atmos mix (which I listened to in TrueHD) defies the typical adjectives I use to describe a soundtrack. Rich, dynamic, slam, clarity; those words just don’t quite cut it. Let’s just say that from the first moments the sound is visceral and tremendous. And it never lets up. The bigger your sub the better and the surrounds will get a workout as well. It’s hard to imagine film sound getting much better.

Extras

Bonus features total over 90 minutes and include multiple making-of documentaries, cast interviews, deleted scenes and raw footage from pre-production tests.

Chris Eberle

Chris' passion for audio began when he took up playing the bassoon at age 12. During his third year at the New England Conservatory of Music, he won a position with the West Point Band where he served for 26 years as principal bassoonist. He retired from the Army in 2013 and is now writing full time and performing as a freelance musician in Central Florida. As an avid movie lover, Chris was unable to turn away the 50-inch Samsung DLP TV that arrived at his door one day, thus launching him irrevocably into an obsession with home theater. Dissatisfied with the image quality of his new acquisition, Chris trained with the Imaging Science Foundation in 2006 and became a professional display calibrator. His ultimate theater desires were realized when he completed construction of a dedicated cinema/listening room in his home. Chris is extremely fortunate that his need for quality audio and video is shared and supported by his wife of over 25 years. In his spare time he enjoys riding his recumbent trike at least 100 miles per week, trying out new restaurants, going to theme parks and spending as much time as possible watching movies and listening to music. Chris enjoys bringing his observations and discoveries about every kind of home theater product to as many curious and well-informed readers as possible. He is proud to be a part of the Team and hopes to help everyone enjoy their AV experiences to the fullest.