Two films were released in 2015 that were all about road rage. Furious 7 was about super-powered, reality-defying car drivers who are recruited by the CIA to perform super-heists in exotic locales. Mad Max: Fury Road was about a warrior woman and her pet Tom Hardy stealing a harem from a dystopian cult leader in the future.
Seeing as these are both films about driving, and they broth seem intent on displaying their fury in their titles, we shall now put them together in a fight to the death. Start your cognitive engines.
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The Case for Furious 7:
Universal
Furious 7 excels in its excess. This is a movie that feels like several movies mashed together, peppered throughout with ever-elongating “how can we top this?” action sequences. Cars fall out of planes, leap between the world’s largest skyscrapers, and ram into each other with a dancerly grace. There is a Bollywood-like go-for-broke attitude about Furious 7 that I admire. It’s like the filmmaker can’t believe that they’re getting away with something so fun and silly, so they’re going to take this opportunity to make as noisy and exciting a film as they can before the keys are taken away.
The characters are all fiercely and melodramatically attached to one another, so we even care about whether or not they’re going to succeed. They tend to speak in big, silly speeches, however, so Furious 7 never teeters into that dangerous action-film-that-takes-itself-far-too-seriously territory. It’s a movie that can be straight-faced, but never somber. It also has a very tasteful tribute to fallen actor Paul Walker, which doesn’t necessarily make sense in the context of the movie, but was exactly what audiences needed to digest the film.
Furious 7, then – and it will go to great lengths to ensure you heard this – is about finding and protecting your own circle; the word “family” is used numerous times throughout. For the seventh film in a series, when we’ve come to know and kind of enjoy being with this particular group, it makes sense that we see a film about its own capacity for togetherness. For however corny that sounds, it can feel real for small snippets.
The Case for Mad Max: Fury Road:
Warner Bros.
Mad Max: Fury Road also excels in excess, but this is not the kind of kids-getting-away-with-it excess of Furious 7. This is the kind of gorgeously earnest excess as perpetrated by someone with a genuine interest in the material. Director George Miller is directing a noisy, weird, freaky movie from a noisy, weird, freaky chasm of his own brain. He imagined this movie whole, a pure vision, and he brought it to the screen in a straightforward and exhilarating fashion. Mad Max: Fury Road is an auteur picture through-and-through.
And, wow, what a vision. I haven’t seen this sort of exciting imagery anywhere, outside of GWAR songs. This is a future that you can’t imagine ever forming in any sort of practical way, but you still believe every detail thanks to the film’s energy and striking originality. It doesn’t ever slow down for you to ask questions. It just requires that you jump on the back of the elaborate chain-encrusted double car and hang on for dear life. By the time the flamethrower guitar makes an appearance, you’ll be strangely converted – and enjoyably overwhelmed – by this amazing film.
What more, Mad Max: Fury Road has more on its mind than Furious 7. Furious 7 claims to be a film about family and togetherness, but that theme is abandoned for long stretches in favor of thrilling, but empty, chases and escapes. Mad Max: Fury Road is about rescuing female slaves from an oppressive master. Women perpetrate all the actions of justice in this universe. Women are the ones who ultimately take down an oppressive patriarchy that keeps them as sex slaves, and, in one twisted detail, mass milks them for sustenance. Women are the sustainers, but not the rulers. Mad Max: Fury Road lets them break free and be the rulers. There is a definite feminist streak in the film, even if George Miller says he never intended the film to be a polemic.
The Winner: Mad Max: Fury Road
Warner Bros.
Although the giddy thrills of Furious 7 cannot be denied, there is just far more going on with Mad Max: Fury Road. There is a purity to is sheer, overwhelming boisterous noise. Its breathlessness outweighs Furious 7‘s gigantism. Plus, the ultimately kind of limp themes of family are only an afterthought to the Furious series; they’re more interested in car fetish and sexy drivers. Mad Max: Fury Road means it. It’s going to make noise, and you’re going to hear it. I don’t usually describe films in these terms, but Fury Road is, honestly and simply, more awesome than Furious 7.
Top Image: Universal / Warner Bros.
Witney Seibold is a contributor to the CraveOnline Film Channel, and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. He also contributes to Legion of Leia, and Blumhouse. You can follow him on “Twitter” at @WitneySeibold, where he is slowly losing his mind.
