Keep Crying MRAs, “Fury Road” is the Summer Blockbuster We Need

The summer blockbuster has failed us, and it’s been failing us for a long time. Every year we’re bombarded with countless action films that look extravagant on the outside, but lack the substance that’ll leave a lasting impact on us. Superhero films have dominated the box office for over a decade, it doesn’t take much for people to flock and see the latest movie from Marvel. Marvel movies make billions of dollars yet they continue to give us subpar and unoriginal stories with the same generic male lead. We’re so used to mindlessly giving our money to these formulaic movies that we don’t notice when something original and innovative that’s just as action packed but even better comes along. That movie is “Mad Max: Fury Road,” and it’s the best summer blockbuster you’ll see in years.

There are so many things that are right about “Fury Road,” but the most important is that this is a female-driven action film. Don’t let the title fool you; Max may be the reason why people think this is a gritty, masculine movie but in reality he takes a backseat while the ladies steal the show. In the film, Max (Tom Hardy) gets caught up in a wild chase when he’s captured and tortured by an insane warlord who’s hunting down Furiosa (Charlize Theron) because she rescued five girls called the Wives that he had captive as sex slaves. Max and Furiosa have to team up to protect the Wives and fight for their survival.

Furiosa is the true hero of the movie; she’s the one who convinces a reluctant Max into helping her, she’s the one calling all the shots and she’s the one that leads Max and the others into saving the day. All of the traits that are always reserved for leading male characters are clearly present in Furiosa and it’s incredible to watch. She’s more than just a one-dimensional “strong” female character; she has motives and reasoning behind her actions that effect the entire plot of the movie. And she’s not the only girl kicking ass; the Five Wives are more than just damsels in distress. They’re smart and filled with emotion, each of them has their own personality and they’re adamant about helping Furiosa so they can reach safety. On top of that, they’re ethically diverse, which is something that’s constantly lacking in action films.

Just when you think it couldn’t get any better than that, the safe haven that Furiosa takes the Wives to are run by elderly women who also kick ass and ride around on motorcycles. This movie has more leading and supporting female characters than it does male and none of them are sexualized or reduced to simple love interests. This is how all female characters need to be written—like the human beings that they are. Girls aren’t one-dimensional objects that exist to advance the leading male’s plot. We also have stories to tell and it’s about time that there’s a summer blockbuster that succeeds in doing just that.

With all of this positive representation of women, one would think that audiences would be ecstatic to experience this film in theaters. Not quite. Men’s Rights Activists (misogynists, basically) are currently in tears because they think the film “tricked” them with their “feminist propaganda" and that the franchise itself has been "ruined and rewritten.” So basically, they’re upset that this movie isn’t sexist like the previous ones. MRAs are better off watching “Age of Ultron;” five male superheroes and one poorly written “leading” lady sounds right up their alley.

This movie treats its female characters with respect, something that’s almost never present in action blockbusters. The last movie that had a female action hero on par with Furiosa was Rita Vrataski in “Edge of Tomorrow.” In both movies, the male lead was a bystander while the girls took control and used their skills and courage to save the day. The fact that someone can be so outraged over female characters getting the same equal treatment as men is sickening. How idiotic do you have to be to actually believe that only men can be the heroes? Aaron Clarey, the socially backwards man who wrote the embarrassing article “Why You Should Not Go See “Mad Max:Feminist Road” and all of his followers who actually believe his sexist point-of-view are offended that George Miller, director and creator of the “Mad Max” movies, decided to go the feminist route.

Clarey believed that he’d been “duped” into seeing the movie: “Alas, I was forced to accept reality. Fury Road was not going to be a movie made for men. It was going to be a feminist piece of propaganda posing as a guy flick.” Funny how Clarey has the nerve to write that as if men aren’t exclusively catered to with every action film that’s released. If he actually kept up with the realities of society and not his women-hating fantasy world, he would know that according to the MPAA, 52% of movie-goers are women. Yes, girls actually go to the movies and we like seeing action flicks too! 40% ofaudience members who saw “The Avengers” were female. This isn’t a male-dominated world anymore, despite the fact that people such as Clarey like to think so.

Miller intentionally made this movie feminist. During production, he got Vagina Monologues' playwright Eve Ensler to consult with the actresses who played the Five Wives. The treatment of women is crucial to the plot of the film and it’s clear that Miller wanted the experiences that they went through to be realistic but also to help with their backstories. Their traumatic experiences didn’t exist to advance Max’s story, they existed to show audiences why their escape was the main focus of the movie and why Furiosa wanted to take them to a safe haven.

For a movie series to start out male-dominated and end up female-driven is a huge accomplishment. This movie is a huge middle finger to every single one of these summer blockbusters that come out each year with the same bland leading males, same cookie cutter plot and same unfair treatment of women. Audiences are protesting about wanting a solo Black Widow movie when they should just throw in the towel and accept the fact that Marvel doesn’t care about its female characters. “Fury Road” has everything you’re looking for when it comes to well-written and in-depth female action heroes so stop wasting money on a poorly written supporting female character and support this film. Movies like “Fury Road” and “Edge of Tomorrow” need to be the future of summer blockbusters and it can only happen if audiences stop accepting mediocre action films as the best.