Fury Road is Miller's reimagining of his popular post-apocalyptic Mad Max films of the 1980s. Tom Hardy takes over for Mel Gibson as road warrior Max Rockatansky, a former highway cop who now battles gangs of vicious marauders across a dystopian wasteland. This time around Max finds himself in the middle of deadly conflict between warlord Immortan Joe and Imperator Furisoa (Charlize Theron). Nothing major, Furiosa's just absconded with five of Joe's enslaved wives in an attempt to secure their freedom.
The story and characters in Fury Road are pretty one-dimensional, and that's fine. We're here for the action and frankly there just isn't enough room for anything else. Miller and his team have taken the kinetic energy of the first three films and thrown them on their ear, delivering amped-up visuals unlike anything we've ever seen. Everything is a feast for the eyes. I've long dreamed of finding cinematic Xanadu. Damned if George Miller hasn't delivered it.
As expected, Fury Road looks spectacular on Blu-ray. Presented in its native 2.40:1 aspect ratio, the razor-sharp images leap off the screen. The rust-colored desert, the blood-red sandstorms, that fire-spewing guitar player from hell, everything, just gushes with vibrant color and gritty menace.
The Dolby Atmos-enhanced TrueHD 7.1 audio track is fully immersive and both dialog and music are crystal clear at minimal levels.
Extras include a handful of insightful make-of documentaries that should keeps fanboys busy for hours.
Mad Max: Fury Road is a landmark achievement in action filmmaking and will most likely end up on many reviewers' best-of lists for 2015, my own included. Grade: A
