I watched Mad Max: Fury Road again this week at one of my local theater's weekly off peak screenings.
The movie never gets old. It's arguably the best action movie in a generation and I've been singing its praises since its 2015 release.
What people forget and what really stuck out to me is that it recieved praise from a feminist perspective for a really good reason.
Furiosa, played by Charlize Theron, is really the protagonist of the movie despite not being the titular character.
It's interesting comparing Furiosa to Rey of The Force Awakens, which opened the same year.
Rey is the shallow, perfect, Mary Sue character that Disney has married itself to in recent years. She's perfect, indestructible, immediately good at everything to the point that she overpowers Luke with ease and beats Kylo Ren the first time she picks up a lightsaber.
Furiosa is kinda a late 80s to 90s female action star. You believe that she can kick your ass because she looks like she can. She's a complete person. She has flaws. She needs help. She loses from time to time. She gets seriously freaking hurt.
Because of all of that, Furiosa is that much more of a fucking badass. She's a complete character who earns our respect; and, everybody roots for because she's not magically endowed with the ability to single-handedly take down a dozen stunt men who are twice her size.
She's feminine without losing her human limitations. There's something beautiful about that.