Can the female action hero be saved?

Philly Phanboy said:
Here's a list of female action movies. Of those movies, the more successful ones are probably:

Aliens Trilogy
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Kill Bill series
Charlie's Angels series
Underworld series
Mulan
Resident Evil series
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
La Femme Nikita (it did spawn a knockoff English version and a TV series)

What do these more successful movies all have in common? For the majority of them they are action movies first and foremost and the girl power schtick is kept to a minimum or in the case of Charlie's Angels girl power is actually looked at in a tongue-in-cheek manner.
Ok-can't give you T2 because Hamilton didn't really do anything. Mulan was a cartoon & not at all in the category of what we're discussing. I didn't care for Crouching TIger & the Charlie's Angels movies were horrible. There's nothing wrong with empowering women on film. But the movies I listed-AND CHARLIE'S ANGELS-don't do that.
 
Isildur´s Heir said:
;)

And i bet that, if this was the 80´s or early 90´s, the leading women would show her boobs at one time, during the movie.

Hell, i´m a man, i love women, i worship women....but, when it comes to movies, enough is enough.
To run around in short-shorts or tight bra, it´s not sexy, it´s just stupid.
And people want Wonder Woman to go running around in star-spanglered undies and red boustier :rolleyes:
Yes, it´s the original suit, but, does anyone have any idea how ridiculous it might came out?
It´s Baywatch...........superheroe style
Finally!
Oh, & Angelina did show a little bit during the shower scene.
 
Chris Wallace said:
I disagree on Monica; using her would've only contributed to the sexploitation I've been talking about. And her English sucks.
And going PG-13 isn't what killed "Elektra"; the movie just didn't know where it wanted to go. All that nonsense about the "treasure" & Elektra trying to be a mentor-it was goofy.

I agree. Although personally, I just think Marvel got careless. If you look at their track record, good movie or bad, almost every single one of their films opened at #1. If it hadn't had to open against "Kill Bill Vol. 2," "The Punisher" would have continued that streak. I think Marvel got into the mentality that "Hell, we're untouchable..." and then, we got "Elektra,"...which didn't really feature Elektra...it was just some watered down, barely recognizable version of the character...hopefully they'll take better quality control in the future.

But I think there's another mentality elsewhere...like at the WB, where they had the misconception that, "Hell, superhero movies are huge...people will watch any movie starring a superhero! As long as we gots us a character from one of them funny books, we gots us a gold mine!"
....and then we get "Catwoman." Bad WB!...Bad!

Studios put the focus on a recognizable name and sensuality and action...not on quality...where it should be.
 
That's because they are still under the mistaken impression that that's what fills seats.
 
The thing that's really sad is that people/studios/journalists are coming out and saying "Well the movie-going audience just isn't ready for female leads..."

And they're citing "Catwoman" and "Elektra" when making statements like this!
The real truth is that the movie going audience just isn't ready to shell out 8 bucks for a crappy movie.
 
WRONG!
We are TIRED of shelling out 8 bucks for crappy movies!!!
 
^ Too true...we really should stop doing that....

*hangs head in shame for watching Aeon Flux, among others*
 
Joss Whedon may break the mold. Hes been proven to write strong female characters.

But honestly, i feel most of these superheroine flicks need the feminine touch, and a good story. I want the perspective of a superhero thats female, not a superheroine trying hard to be one of the guys, not ****ty outfits, and cheesy girl power plots.
 
That would require something that's hard to get for many reasons; a FEMALE writer.
 
yeah theyre too concerned with looks these days. A decent heroine doesnt have to be super-attractive..they need some edge at least.

I mean, they cast angelina jolie as lara croft for christs sake and made movies with plots that were alot worse than the actual game!!!!

They could so easily make a decent tomb raider movie if they put a bit of thought into it....but I doubt if theyll ever get another ripley- the reason why she was such a good character is that she was written as a man originally, thus avoiding all the **** cliches and the "im a resourceful and sexy woman" grins that always seem to find their way into these kinds of movies-its sexism in the industry really...

The best heroines/female roles are always played straight.... but then again, without being controversial..just how believable can a female action hero be these days? I think itll only be when there is true equality amongst men and women (i.e not "equality" of women that is related to sexual empowerment, just plain old equality) and when predominantly male roles (armed forces, construction, government,police) encourage more females....itll only be then that we get true female leads in these sorts of movies.
 
plus imo, perhaps to damage the elequence of my previous post, I think that naturally a male action hero is going to be more believable, because it's generally not in womens nature to want to blow stuff up and kick people in the face....and blow them up again. they have much more sophisticated means of hurting men...hehehee
 
Something else occured to me while exploring this "eye candy" angle; ever notice that in the publicity photos for the X-Men & FF movies, the women's uniforms are almost always partly unzipped? Like a little peep show.
 

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