Mad Max 2: Road Warrior (or is it Road Warrior: Mad Max 2?)
I wonder. Is there any point in this? I'm sure you all know Mad Max 2 perfectly well by now. It's been around long enough. I watched my HD DVD of it the other night. So this review will cover how the film holds up these days and the quality of this release. Gosh don't I sound serious there?
The FILM (Gosh a heading!)
I was struck by how realistic people seem to act, despite the film being a slightly ridiculous post apocalyptic setting. It feels very much like the scripting was very well thought out with appropriate thought put into motivations. The lead character is delightfully self serving for the most part. He's not a good guy but he's not a bad guy, he does things which will benefit other people but only because he will profit out of in some way. Of course he sees something of a change in character toward the end but is that more motivated out of revenge than helping others? The action is all really well put together and manages to be exciting without being dizzying. It allows appropriate time for things to happen and frames them very well. It's just a great solidly made film and remains memorable because of that.
The HD-DVD
While it was untoubtedly sharper it made little difference. I noticed some of the rocks were looking clearly and better defined and some of the road textures seem more obviously detailed. It didn't make any real difference though. Mad Max 2 isn't really a very pretty film. It's pretty sparse so there isn't much benefit in the higher definition. Unless you like looking at very detailed roads and rocks. The night scenes looked really grainy though which is probably a fault with the original film but shouldn't HD remastering remove such things? Or is it impossible to get rid of such a severe grain? Of course I haven't compared to my DVD so that may make me notice more difference but I don't think so. If you've got an absotively huge screen it's probably going to show a more significant difference.
The FILM (Gosh a heading!)
I was struck by how realistic people seem to act, despite the film being a slightly ridiculous post apocalyptic setting. It feels very much like the scripting was very well thought out with appropriate thought put into motivations. The lead character is delightfully self serving for the most part. He's not a good guy but he's not a bad guy, he does things which will benefit other people but only because he will profit out of in some way. Of course he sees something of a change in character toward the end but is that more motivated out of revenge than helping others? The action is all really well put together and manages to be exciting without being dizzying. It allows appropriate time for things to happen and frames them very well. It's just a great solidly made film and remains memorable because of that.
The HD-DVD
While it was untoubtedly sharper it made little difference. I noticed some of the rocks were looking clearly and better defined and some of the road textures seem more obviously detailed. It didn't make any real difference though. Mad Max 2 isn't really a very pretty film. It's pretty sparse so there isn't much benefit in the higher definition. Unless you like looking at very detailed roads and rocks. The night scenes looked really grainy though which is probably a fault with the original film but shouldn't HD remastering remove such things? Or is it impossible to get rid of such a severe grain? Of course I haven't compared to my DVD so that may make me notice more difference but I don't think so. If you've got an absotively huge screen it's probably going to show a more significant difference.