Sigourney Weaver, Linda Hamilton and Angelina Jolie are among my favorite female action heroes.

maybe most men can't relate because they each know they could beat her up quite easily in a fight... even a teenage boy would probably feel that he could take her...

i don't mind, I liked the movie... was fun trash and angelina looks great in this...

As usual they, men and boys, often confuse the actor with the character they are playing. The character who is the hero is specially trained in weapons and fighting tactics. Their physical and mental stamina and endurance is tested daily. Action and reaction become second nature. The hero is not one of a group of trainees, he or she is the best of the best. To survive, there can be no fair fight. If the hero encounters an opponent who is superior, he or she will run, or find other means to take him out.

Real life is not like the movies. Actors are playing a role and, unless they have a background in fighting (e.g. martial arts, MMA, Krav Maga), they are as ill equipped as any untrained person. So confronting the actor is not like fighting with the character they are playing, it is just living out a fantasy.

Angelina always looks great in these kind of movies.

most men think they could beat up the top female martial artists/mma fighters/wrestlers... whether they can or not is besides the point, that's the way they feel... that's why they won't go for it the same way as if it was a man playing that character, where they'll either believe that that guy could pull it off or put themselves place of that character and live out the fantasy role...

they seem more accepting to buy into the fantasy of it with women if there are guns involved (the huge Resident Evil franchise is female led and almost entirely watched by men/boys) or if it is magical/superhero powers and such (wonder woman, x-men type women characters etc...)... or maybe if the character uses her wits or has set backs along the way, e.g. Sigourney Weaver's role in Alien, Linda Hamilton in Terminator...

I think it's far more nuanced then men don't like strong female leads in action/adventure films... it's 2017

@wonder2wonder said:

Sigourney Weaver, Linda Hamilton and Angelina Jolie are among my favorite female action heroes.

...and Jodie Foster. Never forget Jodie Foster! Christ, I wish she were in more films. She's easily one of the most watchable actresses. Perhaps not an "action hero," but she's starred in many of the same types of films as the others.

Oh, and I have no opinion of Salt. I can't stand Angelina Jolie as an actress, so I typically avoid her movies.

@Renovatio said: I think it's far more nuanced then men don't like strong female leads in action/adventure films... it's 2017

I think you'd need to ask women what they think. I talk to my wife about her workplace often and it seems pretty clear that sexism still exists, though it's not as overt due to social pressure. It's more insidious; that "glass ceiling" still exists in every industry, even film. It seems there are one or two spots for a current "action film woman," but there aren't many. The last one I can remember was Gina Carano, but she petered out quickly.

I'm not saying there isn't sexism in the real world. Of course there is. All i'm saying is that guys will watch a female action lead, it just has to be someone plausibly stronger than they are or has another edge, or where physical strength is not what the character relies on. They're already doing so!

Don't believe me, look at some of the action/adventure movies with female leads just from 2016:

• Rogue One (a $200 million star wars movie)
• Resident Evil (the latest one)
• Underworld (the latest one)
• Allegiant
• 5th Wave

All of this in one year and those movies all have a large male fanbase and are action adventure movies, not thrillers, horror movies, romance movies or dramas. For male leads for big action/adventure movies you have Blood Father, John Wick 2 and London has Fallen. I'm sure there are others, but those are smaller genre movies for the most part or superhero movies like Logan, that rely on an existing literature of historical comic-book characters from the 1950s and possibly earlier who are mostly male etc... Even that has changed with a lot more female characters in the ensemble avengers/x-men movies and all of the different planned mashups.

The cliche that men don't like strong women, or female leads is looking weaker than ever...

Oh, and I have no opinion of Salt. I can't stand Angelina Jolie as an actress, so I typically avoid her movies.

I'm not a big fan of Will Farrell, but there are a few of his movies I quite appreciated/enjoyed.

If you haven't seen SALT, you might do well to check it out - the story is engaging.

I've seen some of Salt; I didn't care for the story too much. Most of these action heroes who've been mentioned in the thread are rather unrealistic regardless of gender. I mean, Arnold Schwarzenegger in Commando? It's a lot of fun, but really just in an escapist way.

My main quibble with Jolie in this film is how thin she is.

@Satch_the_man said:

I've seen some of Salt; I didn't care for the story too much. Most of these action heroes who've been mentioned in the thread are rather unrealistic regardless of gender. I mean, Arnold Schwarzenegger in Commando? It's a lot of fun, but really just in an escapist way.

Not liking the story is fine. My initial post is aimed specifically at those who dismiss the movie out of hand on an ostensible issue of "realism" when they're, at the same time, lauding any other action movie that is equally unrealistic, but lead by a man. I'm calling them out - action movies are not realistic, regardless the gender of the star. So, "realism" cannot be a legitimate problem for this movie anymore than it would be for any other action movie.

Now, I agree, there are degrees of suspension of belief that movies ask of their audiences; some action is plausible, while others are just so beyond real it's difficult to ignore; this movie, however, did not go to any extreme I haven't seen exceeded before with men at the helm.