Right, this isn't really a versus -post, since we enjoyed both films immensely. But we thought we could review them together because they both have pretty great female characters and are more action-oriented.
Mad Max:Fury Road
We weren't actually planning to go see this in the cinema, though we have seen the previous three instalments as kids, but then there was all this buzz about the movie's trailer being feminist "propaganda" in the blogosphere, and all these (we guess the correct term is) "meninists" were getting worked up about the film even before seeing it and advocating for "real" men not go see it. So of course, we had to go see it. It is true that the film does have feminist "propaganda", if by "propaganda" you mean that women are supposed to be equal to men, that they can take part in action just as much and have a right to their own bodies. In this particular case, the film totally exceeded our expectations. It was just great to see a "dick-flick" where women aren't marginalised. Also, the men weren't emasculated in any way when women were being badasses, shooting stuff, driving and even taking charge (mainly Furiosa).
The first thing we noticed in the film was it's absolutely gorgeous visuals. We can't help but think that this, visually, is what George Miller had in mind when making the originals. The colours and the cinematography were simply breath-taking. The CGI didn't feel forced or over-the-top, which is quite unusual for a film using this much CGI. The story was coherent and simple, which helped to keep the movie's fast pace. This is definitely a film to see on the big screen, it just does it justice. Overall, the film worked very well as a whole, was pretty memorable and yeah..we don't really have complaints.
Spy
This is probably one of the funniest films we've seen in theatres. As proven by Jonna making her infamous snort laugh that echoed in the room after everyone else had stopped laughing. This functions as a parody perfectly, as it would work as a stand-alone spy movie as well as comedy. We found all the characters sympathetic, but this was definitely the main character's movie. And she's really great, we loved her. The humour of the film was fairly intelligent as it didn't rely on Susan's body type being the butt of the joke. Another of our favourite was the "love-making" Italian spy, Aldo. If you've lived in Mediterranean countries, you know what we're talking about. He was just great fun to watch.
This whole movie simply felt like it was done with love towards the spy genre. We thought it was pretty ingenious to have a woman as the main character, especially someone as unassuming as Susan. Action sequences were awesome and the story went forward without any major hitches. We just love close combat. And did we mention, it was freakin' hilarious.
General thoughts
It's great to see Hollywood finally starting to have variety of female characters represented in blockbuster films and being successful in the box office. It would be awesome to see this happen for minorities as well, as feminism isn't really feminism if women of colour or the LGBTQ+ community are excluded. We thought that both of these movies were pretty neat and would definitely recommend to go see them in the cinema. Also, both of these films pass the Bechdel test with flying colours, so here's to hoping this trend will become the norm in mainstream Hollywood. We would have to say as far as our preferences go, we found Spy to be more our thing. But both films are well-worth watching.
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