Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024) 4K Blu-ray Review

TweakTown's Rating: 88%

The Bottom Line

Furiosa is a stunning action ride that only suffers with comparison to its predecessor. The 4K disc is a very impressive package.

Pros

• + A technically proficient image with stunning detail
• + Reference quality Dolby Atmos mix
• + Bonus features provide unusually high depth

Cons

• - No audio commentary
• - No Black & Chrome version, which is available for separate purchase

Should you buy it?

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A few months after the Mad Max spin-off Furiosa hit theatres with a thud, grossing just $172m worldwide (less than half that of its predecessor, Fury Road), the film has now made its way to streaming and home video formats where it will hopefully find the audience that has so far eluded it. Thankfully, based on this stunning 4K release, it should be at the top of your to-watch list.

After several conflicts, Australia (and presumably, the world) has become an irradiated desert and fallen into collapse. In one of the last vestiges of greenery, young Furiosa (Alyla Browne/ Anya Taylor-Joy) is kidnapped by a scouting party of the ambitious (but slightly inept) warlord Dementus (Chris Hemsworth), whose jealousy regards the last remaining pillars of production, but might just leave an impact on what remains of a semi-functioning society.

Despite its muddled title, Furiosa serves as a direct prequel to Fury Road (Mad Max 3.5, if you will), which takes viewers right up to the events portrayed in its predecessor, while keeping the focus squarely on the titular hero. Given the difference in narrative time (not least the 12 years since cameras rolled), the role initially played by Charlize Theron has been recast with Anya Taylor-Joy and newcomer Alyla Browne, who prove to be fine choices indeed, even if Taylor-Joy lacks much of the grit and intensity that Theron brought.

Sadly, Chris Hemsworth is much less convincing as the lead villain, Dementus, who shifts uneasily between intensity and buffoonery. He's a fine and generally reliable actor, but throughout the film, I remained keenly aware I was watching Chris Hemsworth, the actor, which made it a little harder to immerse myself in the proceedings fully.

While Furiosa remains far more consistent with the visual look established in Fury Road than with any of its predecessors, it is narratively and tonally quite a different beast altogether - a good choice since it would be impossible to top that spectacular film. Nonetheless, Furiosa suffers from a lack of structure (perhaps reinforced by the elongated timeframe) and absent the same propulsive drive and laser-focused editing style.

Isolated, Furiosa is a good, sometimes great film with engaging characters, ambitious visuals, and solid action beats. But just like The Hobbit is to The Lord of the Rings, the same elements don't always coalesce quite the same way twice. Worse, the grittiness of Fury Road's practical effects (regularly enhanced by CG in a believable manner) is all too often absent here, with too many sub-standard CG effects rendered with a very digital sheen that takes the viewer out of the film with alarming regularity.

Following the film's devastating box office failure, it's likely that the franchise will take a breath - almost certainly necessitating a new director and a new vision for the future. It'll be an incredibly hard act to follow, but we all know Hollywood can't resist the trappings of a tried-and-true franchise for long.

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Video transfer

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.39:1 in the Rec. 2020 color space. It is finished with Dolby Vision and HDR-10 formats and encoded with AVC H.265 compression.

While at first glance the film looks much like Fury Road, under the hood production has taken advantage of huge leaps in technology since its predecessor, which adds up to nothing less than sheer digital perfection (Fury Road was shot in 2.8K and finished in 2K, and in comparison, Furiosa was shot in 6.5K and finished in 4K). While digital augmentation looms large in practically every frame, the image is brimming with tangibly sharp and detailed textures, demonstrating superb definition and color corrected to within an inch of its life. The film was tailor-made for a wide color gamut and HDR, providing a huge leg up over its Blu-ray counterpart.

Overall, this is a superb, practically perfect digital image that rarely looks like the film but is impressive nonetheless.

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Audio transfer

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is presented with a Dolby Atmos mix.

Tremendous: that's my one-word review. But if you want a little more...

Demonstrating zero subtlety, Furiosa frequently calls attention to itself in a very pleasing manner. Equally as supportive to the action sequences as much as engaging gentler scenes with general ambience that draw the viewer in, this mix has it all - including wonderful use of the height surrounds if you're suitably equipped. LFE usage is unsurprisingly tight and responsive, providing some pleasing intensive feedback when appropriate. Tom Holkenborg's bombastic score is mixed generally well, only rarely breaking into sound effects or dialogue in an overt manner.

Overall, this is a really aggressive mix that will undoubtedly become the go-to reference mix for many home theatre aficionados.

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Bonus materials

It's an overwhelming case of quality, not quantity of supplements. Let's jump in.

The package highlight is the nearly hour-long Highway to Valhalla: In Pursuit of Furiosa Documentary, which takes a relatively in-depth look across the entire production, from the earliest pre-production and rehearsal meetings up through to post. They rarely make these kinds of warts-and-all documentaries, so it's definitely refreshing to witness.

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Next up, we have four featurettes, which add up to nearly 45 minutes and hone in on specific elements of the film's production. Darkest Angel: Anya Taylor-Joy as Furiosa looks at the recasting of the film's titular heroine, Motorbike Messiah: Chris Hemsworth as Dementus looks at Hemsworth's big bad, which might prove a surprise at just how deeply engaged the actor was. Furiosa: Stowaway to Nowhere takes an extended look at the making of the epic sequence. In contrast, Metal Beasts & Holy Motors reveals how much effort and consideration went into the vehicular behemoths.