30 years after the Mad Max saga appeared to conclude with 1985’s Beyond Thunderdome, George Miller returned to that character with 2015’s Fury Road. Despite the title, much of the film concentrated on a female warrior named Furiosa.

It remains to be seen if Miller will ever produce another formal Max movie. In the meantime, 2024 brought a prequel called Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, one that logically focused on how the Furiosa of Fury Road evolved.

Marauders led by Dementus (Chris Hemsworth) abduct a young girl named Furiosa (Alyla Browne). Thought Dementus claims to view the child as his daughter, he trades her to warlord Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme) as part of a deal.

Groomed to be part of Joe’s baby-producing harem, Furiosa eventually escapes and pretends to be male to get through life. When she grows to adulthood (Anya Taylor-Joy), Furiosa operates with one main goal: revenge against Dementus, the man who took her from her mother (Charlee Fraser).

If we eliminate its credits, Furiosa spans about 138 minutes. Across that running time, viewers should expect maybe five minutes of character/plot information and 133 minutes of action/mayhem.

In other words, Furiosa largely emulates Fury Road. Both heavily favor general chaos over any form of real narrative.

Although I didn’t clearly dislike Fury Road, I found it to offer a messy, thinly-developed case of style over substance. I admit that I eventually saw the film in a more negative light than the actual product probably deserved due to the rapturous fan reception.

As my review of Fury Road indicates, I thought it gave us a moderately entertaining affair, albeit one with a slew of major flaws. For reasons that remain perplexing to me, however, many folks came to see it as arguably the greatest action film of all-time and they went out of their way to excuse its obvious problems.

Lather, rinse and all that, for Furiosa offers a carbon copy of the pros and cons of Fury Road. It doesn’t enjoy the same fawning praise, however.

And despite my less than warm feelings toward Fury Road, that actually made me hope I’d really like Furiosa. I got the impression much of the negativity aimed at this film came from the clan of insecure boys who just don’t like movies with strong female leads.

Given that semi-backlash, I wanted to enjoy Furiosa. But I didn’t.

I find myself tempted to simply cut and paste much of my Fury Road review, for the two flicks seem awfully similar. Miller uses the same annoying cinematic techniques that quickly grew old in 2015, and those choices haven’t become more enjoyable with age.

Hoo boy, does Miller love his swooping cameras! It seems like 90 percent of the movie stems from shots in which we get a fast zoom into – and sometimes away from – the action.

Miller clearly thinks this adds a sense of impact and excitement. Instead, the photographic decisions just become irritating and monotonous.

As does the movie’s action. Like I mentioned earlier, Furiosa comes with precious little actual plot or character development.

Instead, the film lays on one chaotic action scene after another. Perhaps some find these sequences thrilling, but I find them tedious.

This becomes especially true because we so rarely enjoy any real investment in the material. Furiosa herself often becomes lost in the bigger scheme of things, so her involvement seems oddly minor too much of the time.

Of course, the film’s existence as a prequel eliminates any tension in terms of Furiosa’s fate. Since we know she’ll be around for the events of Fury Road, we never fret about what will happen to her.

This leaves us with a prequel I can’t imagine many wanted. Although fans liked the character in Fury Road, I don’t recall any groundswell of demand to view her own adventure.

Scratch that – I think folks did want a sequel that heavily featured Furiosa. But it doesn’t seem like anyone clamored for a tale that showed us how she got Fury Road.

And I can’t imagine many think Furiosa offers a satisfying exploration of the lead role’s “origin story”, especially since we get so little actual plot/character exploration. Perhaps we receive more than the five minutes of development I claimed, but if so, we fail to find much more than that.

Instead, we just wind up with one Big Action Scene after another, none of which seem memorable. Indeed, the fact that Miller appears unable to think of anything to do other than pit the minions of Joe and Dementus against each other makes matters downright tiresome.

Hemsworth chews scenery with gusto and almost manages to make parts of the movie enjoyable. Taylor-Joy seems less compelling as our underwritten lead, however, as she can’t break out from the role’s dull confines.

As occurred with Fury Road, I can’t claim to genuinely dislike Furiosa. For its own flaws, it moves pretty quickly and manages to create a semi-interesting world.

Nonetheless, like with Fury Road, Furiosa lacks depth and just exists as two-plus hours of general mayhem. Thin and superficial, the movie connects too infrequently.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga appears in an aspect ratio of 2.39:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. A native 4K product, this turned into a strong Dolby Vision image.

Sharpness worked great. No real softness emerged, so this left us with a tight, concise presentation.

Neither jagged edges nor shimmering impacted the movie, and I saw no edge haloes. Of course, print flaws failed to manifest.

Given that most of the film took place in sandy domains, the prevalence of amber and orange tones came as no surprise. Add some blue/teal and you get a pretty Hollywood Standard palette.

Still, like I said, most of those colors made sense for the locations, and the disc replicated them as intended. HDR added zest and power to the hues.

Blacks felt dark and deep, while shadows offered appropriate clarity outside of some dense “day for night” shots. Whites and contrast received a boost from HDR. I felt highly pleased with the picture.

No complaints greeted the terrific Dolby Atmos soundtrack of Furiosa. Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, the mix created a consistently involving setting.

Whether the movie opted for quiet or loud sequences, the soundfield used all the channels in an engaging manner. These filled the room in ways that helped immerse us in the material.

Of course, big action scenes fared best, as those threw the violence at us hot and heavy. All the information showed up in appropriate spots and meshed smoothly to form an excellent soundfield.

Audio quality impressed as well, with speech that appeared natural and concise. Music demonstrated solid impact and range.

Effects delivered a great impression, with clean highs and taut lows. Everything about the soundtrack succeeded.

Five video programs appear, and Highway to Valhalla runs for 57 minutes. It boasts comments from writer/director George Miller, producer Doug Mitchell, 1st AD PJ Voeten, production designer Colin Gibson, costume designer Jenny Beavan, associate costume designer Lauren Reyhani, prosthetics designer Larry van Duynhoven, hair and makeup designer Lesley Vanderwalt, salvage artist Chris Marinovich, visual effects supervisor Andrew Jackson, action designer/2nd unit director/additional story contributor Guy Norris, director of photography Simon Duggan, composer/re-recording mixer, orchstrator Tom Holkenborg, supervising sound mixer/sound designer/re-recording mixer Robert Mackenzie, and actors Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth, Lacky Hulme, Tom Burke, Ian Roberts, Quaden Bayles, David Collins, CJ Bloomfield, George Shevtsov, Josh Helman, and Matuse.

“Valhalla” looks at the film’s origins and development, story/characters, cast and performances, sets and locations, stunts and action, costumes, makeup and various effects, photography, music and audio.

In other words, “Valhalla” offers a broad look at the film’s creation, and it does so well. Between the remarks from those involved to the ample behind the scenes footage, this turns into a pretty terrific documentary.

Darkest Angel goes for 10 minutes, 19 seconds. Here we find notes from Taylor-Joy, Miller, Vanderwalt, Mitchell, Burke, Hulme, Hemsworth, Mitchell, and actors Alyla Browne and Charlee Fraser.

“Angel” examines the Furiosa character as well as the two actors who play her and other aspects of her depiction in the film. Despite a little of the standard happy talk, we nonetheless get a useful view at the different domains.

Next comes Motorbike Messiah, a 10-minute, two-second reel. This one presents info from Miller, Hemsworth, Hulme, Beavan, Reyhani, hair designer Luca Vannella, makeup designer Matteo Silvi, and actor Elsa Pataky.

With “Messiah”, we get a look at the Dementus character as well as Hemsworth’s approach to the role and related topics. It follows the same vibe as “Angel”, so it works pretty nicely.

Stowaway to Nowhere spans 11 minutes, 13 seconds. It provides details from Miller, Mitchell, Norris, Taylor-Joy, Bayles, Gibson, Burke, edge arm technician Sam Bailey, rigger Norroa Poa , actor/stunt performer Sam Jones, stunt performers Jordan Bissaker, Karl van Moorsel, Eugene Ardensen and Corey Creed, stunt double Jesse Turner, fight choreographer Richard Norton, dummy supervisor Paul Hasell, and post-viz supervisor Graham Olsen.

We find an examination of the movie’s stunts and action. Expect another worthwhile reel.

Finally, Metal Beasts and Holy Motors fills 14 minutes, 42 seconds. We locate remarks from Miller, Taylor-Joy, Mitchell, Gibson, Fraser, Hemsworth, Norris, Burke, and monster truck designers Michael and Sam Xuereb.

This piece digs into the film’s vehicles. “Beasts” wraps this good collection of video programs on a satisfying note.

If you liked Mad Max: Fury Road, then you will probably enjoy Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga because it offers a close cousin of its predecessor. I find both to provide sporadic excitement but to come out as much more style than substance. The 4K UHD delivers excellent picture and audio along with a quality collection of supplements. Too long and too insubstantial, Furiosa doesn’t click.