Ok so this might be a stretch, but bare with me for a moment. One of my favorite sci-fi shows is a show called Person of Interest. If you've ever seen it then maybe you agree. The entire premise of the show is this dude builds a conscious AI to track acts terrorism before they occur for the US government except the AI tracks and predicts every crime. The US government defines every crime that is not an act of terrorism as unimportant, but the creator of the AI believes differently. The creator of the AI ends up hiring a retired CIA agent/soldier to help him save the people who "the machine" have predicted will be a part of a life threatening crime. The one catch is they never know if the person they are after is the perpetrator or the victim. That is only where the story begins, and it gets even crazier as the circle of characters grows larger. Would definitely recommend it. For the post-apocalyptic, the first thing that comes to mind is Mad Max: Fury Road.
I think I must be the only person who thought Fury Road was massively over-rated. It was (and I realize this is almost by design) just one two hour chase sequence. The effects, both practical and CGI, directing and implementation of the action in the film was fantastic, don't get me wrong. But there was so little actual story (I felt), barely any background given to any of the characters, and Max himself was almost an incidental side character. It felt a bit to me like Furiosa was actually the 'main' character, and mostly just showed up so the film didn't get accused of being a complete feminist trip.
I'm not sure I feel the same way. I felt like there was a good amount of story in it. I mean it didn't seem to be outright explained in every circumstance, but it is there in a more gentle sense. I always consider the movie to be one adventure in this wasteland, and any backstory given was to help the viewer feel the urgency of the adventure taking place. I'm kind of glad they didn't spend a larger portion of the movie explaining backstories and past events because I feel like there wouldn't have been any movie to watch.
I see where you're coming from. I feel though, that sometimes minimalism in plot can actually help accentuate the film, instead of detract from it. I think Fury Road is a good example of this. I think what the film lacks in depth of plot (which I don't think is a detractor) it makes up with a rich, well crafted world.