I've been making himself watch all seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer lately (as he never watched it when he was younger..I KNOW) and it got me to thinking about other female TV and film characters that well, kick ass basically. I'm thinking specifically of tough women who can fight, are self-sufficient and at no point need to be rescued by a man. Buffy aside, (because I dedicated a whole post to her before HERE), these are the first of my top 10 Ultimate Female Action Heroes:
Alice, from Resident Evil. OK, so this is cheating slightly because Alice has been genetically modified to make her the superhero she is but nonetheless, she's ridiculously cool and is on a continuous mission to pretty much single-handedly save the world from zombies. The films are kind of terrible from the second one onwards but the first is worth watching for the greatness of Alice alone.
Ripley, from the Alien films. I've loved Alien since I was a chill'un, primarily because of the amazing Ripley. For me, she's one of the best female protagonists of all time- just as tough as her male counterparts, if not stronger because she manages to face off the scariest of creatures and survive. Interestingly, in the films while she's portrayed as an almost masculine space-engineer, she's also very maternal- protecting first a cat and then a small, orphaned child. I always think that was really brave for the time- it was certainly one of the first truly empowering roles for an actress and gave world recognition to Sigourney Weaver.
The Bride, from Kill Bill. Also known as "Black Mamba", the bride is a ruthless warrior trained by a martial arts expert, who following the gunning down of herself (while heavily pregnant) and her fiance on their wedding day, sets out to get her revenge on those who murdered her entire wedding party, with seriously bloody consequences. Each fight scene is more thrilling and gory than the last and aside from the fact that she is justified in her quest, you want her to win anyway cause she's just far too cool.
Sarah Connor, Terminator films. I'm also a huge fan of the first two Terminator films, again after that they weren't so great and that may well have something to do with the lack of Sarah Connor, John Connor's ma. What I love about her is that you really see the evolution of her character from the first to the second film- she starts off as a timid waitress, oblivious to the awful future that awaits her and by the second film has become hardened, muscled, ferocious and completely determined and focused on preventing judgement day and protecting her son. She's just awesome.
Trinity is a very talented computer programmer who escapes from the Matrix, is an expert at operating various different vehicles and is astoundingly good at the old martial arts (that leaping in the air and hovering before kicking the crap out of people move is particularly legendary). Although she is primarily Neo's love interest, her importance in the film is also based on the fact that she helps to locate and 'unplug' new recruits from the Matrix in the war against the machines. She's pretty stealthy.
Stay tuned for Part 2- Black Widow from the Avengers, Hit-Girl from Kick Ass, Katniss from the Hunger Games, Daenerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones and Lisbeth Salander from Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. In the meantime, let me know in the comments who your all time favourite female action hero is!
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I LOVE Buffy, himself has no interest at all in that sort of thing so well done on getting your hubby to watch it.
ReplyDeleteHe's a big nerd too so he's actually really enjoying it! :)
DeleteLove this, nothing better than a kick ass female lead! Love resident evil And alien!
ReplyDeleteLauren
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I know, it's the best! Alien is definitely one of my all time Favourites, I could rewatch it a million times! xx
DeleteOoh yes, I love The Bride and Trinity! And the others you've mentioned for the second post as well.
ReplyDeleteDon't hate me but I have never watched all of Buffy! I bought the box set 2 Christmases ago, I'm half way through Season 4. I've stalled on watching it, partly because I watched so much in one go (I was sick so had a lot of spare time on my hands) and also because other things have got in my way. I will get back into it as I love it!
Half way through season 4 is pretty decent! We're about the same at this stage, just such a great show but when you know you've other more recent shows to catch up on it's hard to watch all the older stuff- it's like me with the Wire.
Deleteya exactly, especially cause everyone's like 'OMG, {insert recent show} is sooooo amazing, do you watch it?'. I practically got bullied into watching the Game of Thrones, but I am enjoying it!
DeleteI can't say I can actually name many female TV or movie characters because I don't watch as many these days.
ReplyDeleteI agree Black Widow was awesome. I also like Anne Hathaway's Catwoman in the last Batman movie.
For TV, what comes to mind is Sydney Bristow from Alias.
I haven't watched any of the Resident Evil movies at all, mainly because I've watched all the major Resident Evil games played by brother, except for Resident Evil 5. To me, Jill Valentine will always be first on my list of Resident Evil heroines, especially since her first appearance was in the very first game. Second would have to be Ada Wong who is so much more impressive in the game that I really wish they didn't put her in the movie because the clips I saw of her portrayal were so mediocre. Ada Wong is one kick ass espionage spy that has appeared in multiple Resident Evil games, Resident Evil 6 being her most recent appearance.
I know the characters from the films but I never played the games so I must've missed something in their translation to the big screen, which is a shame. I like Claire in those films too, she's pretty cool.
DeleteClaire is great too. There's a CGI movie, Resident Evil: Degeneration, and she's in that one with Leon Kennedy. The story is all right, not like the games but good enough for me.
DeleteI believe you can find most of the play-throughs for the games on YouTube. Some people even post just the cut-scene compliations (just the movie parts that are not playable in the game). Like this one, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6In_iYopZIA
What's cool, is that Ada's stunts are done by a motion capture artist, so there's a real human behind all of her movement.