If you don’t have Mad Max Fury Road or you just want to see it in black and white, then this release is right up your alley. Warner Home Video has done a great job with it, even including a cool introduction by George Miller, as well as both films, so you won’t be disappointed with the results.
Dammit, Warner Home Video. Now I have to buy this again.
Official Synopsis
Haunted by his turbulent past, Mad Max (Tom Hardy) believes the best way to survive is to wander alone. Nevertheless, he becomes swept up with a group fleeing across the Wasteland in a War Rig driven by an elite Imperator, Furiosa (Charlize Theron). They are escaping a Citadel tyrannized by the Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne), from whom something irreplaceable has been taken. Enraged, the Warlord marshals all his gangs and pursues the rebels ruthlessly in the high-octane Road War that follows.
I don’t have to tell you how epic this film is, but I’m certainly going to do it because some of you folks haven’t yet experienced the joy of Mad Max Fury Road.
Taking a page from the greatest action films from the 70s and 80s, Mad Max Fury Road is a heart-pounding thrill ride (like that?) that reminds us that Happy Feet director George Miller hasn’t lost one single step with his apocalyptic anti-hero Max, who wanders the wasteland endlessly going in and out of other heroes’ stories.
Miller puts together one of the more high-octane action adventures from 2015 with Fury Road, taking us on what could only be described as the longest car chase scene on film in the last decade. Miller’s simplistic storyline of a hardened leader named Furiosa trying to make a better life for a group of young women dubbed ‘breeders’ is intense and heartfelt. If Furiosa doesn’t deliver them to a promised paradise, the group will otherwise set a destiny to live a life making babies for their cruel captor Immortan Joe. Furiosa and the group escapes into the desert in hopes of finding the best part of the world left over from a catastrophic world war. The entire movie is built around this simple storyline and the action that comes with it thrives around it, like thick yummy icing to a cake. Of course, somewhere along the way everyone’s favorite wanderer, Max, makes his way into the middle of it all.
Everything about Fury Road is spectacular. It proves that action films don’t need to be drowned in exposition or throw around fancy effects to be interesting. It simply finds a way to set its hooks directly into the viewer’s attention span through compelling characters, practical effects and center shots to keep the eye from fatiguing. It’s simply a beautiful movie.
That said, this edition of the film ups the ante of the visuals by subtraction.
For those of us not engrossed with production on a day-to-day basis, the idea of turning a perfectly pleasing color film into a black and white joyride, might seem a bit odd in theory. Who really wants a movie in black and white nowadays, right? For most common folks out there (no offense), it would seem like an uninteresting adventure to partake in. But pump the brakes before you make a judgement call.
The Black & Chrome Edition of Mad Max Fury road is breathtaking. One item of business that is enhanced in the de-colorization process, something you may not think about, is how much of the ‘fake’ production it takes away from the experience. One of the more prominent features of this release is that the small amount of CGI in the film blends perfectly in with the practical effects. Don’t get me wrong, there are still moments where you can pinpoint CGI, but those moments are a lot more difficult to visually find than in the previous version. I was quite amazed with how well the black and white conversion just melts the CGI right into the practical adventure of the film. It’s quite subtle, yet alarmingly perfect.
In addition, the black and white helps with character make-up and character intensity. For example, Furiosa’s patented black make-up smeared across her eyes and forehead brings out those haunting damaged memories that her character holds inside. It magnifies her bitterness, her hatred for Joe and her determination to see her ill-fated plight through before she leaves the world. You don’t get all of that through the color version of the film, but it bluntly seeps through in black and white.
If that wasn’t enough, the black and white also puts a bit more depth and detail into the environments. For example, you will find the epic sandstorm scene is better by tenfold. The white flashes of lightening and raw intensity of the storm, as it tears through vehicles, is so damn detailed in black and white, if not disturbing and disruptive (in a good way) sometimes. When you see the war-rig in the background as the war-boy looks to his right to gauge his next target in his supped up classic car, the magnitude of depth is more defined between the vehicles. The draw distance is better defined and creates a sense of girth for the damaged and dangerous world these people reside in. Even the scene where Furiosa is kneeled down yelling to an empty landscape is made so much better, visually, through the subtraction of color. It’s like watching a well-made classic film.
Anyway, if you don’t have Mad Max Fury Road or you just want to see it in black and white, then this release is right up your alley. Warner Home Video has done a great job with it, even including a cool introduction by George Miller, as well as both films, so you won’t be disappointed with the results.
As for specific features, here’s what you should expect:
– Introduction by George Miller (NEW)
– Maximum Fury: Filming Fury Road
– Mad Max: Fury on Four Wheels
– The Road Warrior: Max and Furiosa
– The Tools of the Wasteland
– The Five Wives: So Shiny, So Chrome
– Fury Road: Crash and Smash
– Deleted Scenes
This is a nice set of features for a re-release of this movie. Not a bad price for everything either ($29.98).
