Action movies are often associated with strong male characters, since that’s what pretty much happened in the hay day of action movies – the 90’s. In recent years we’ve seen more and more action movies use women as their lead character. And it’s been such a good move for the genre as a whole.
If you want to know what some of the best action movies with female leads are, just keep on reading.
Wonder Woman
The first DC Universe movie that was actually good and allowed them to gain a foot next to the seemingly invincible MCU. Gal Gadot does an amazing job as this modern version of Wonder Woman, and the next movie should be coming along in the next year or so.
Dark Phoenix
The last non-MCU X-Men movie has Sansa Stark get possessed by the Phoenix Force, which makes her one of the strongest mutants and a danger to the entire world. If that sounds like an X-Men movie we’ve already seen before, it’s because it is. But this time, it’s with the new cast!
The Hunger Games
We’ve all seen at least parts of this movie series with Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen, right? This action movie deals with a dystopian future (aren’t they all?) where young people are being used as tribute for, well, basically killing each other until one person is left standing.
Atomic Blonde
If you’re into John Wick, this is basically a spy version of John Wick with Charlize Theron as the main lead.
Kill Bill
Uma Thurman plays the main character in this amazing kung fu movie by Quentin Tarantino. I’m sure you’ve already seen this one, but watch it again just in case.
Tomb Raider
No, not the Angelina Jolie one. The new Alicia Vikander movie actually follows the newer video games almost to the letter, which means it’s also as good and as entertaining as the video game.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Thanks to Disney, we finally have a female lead in Star Wars movies. I know, we had Leia back in the original trilogy and Padmé in the prequels, but this is the first time we have a named, important female character that carries a lightsaber.
Captain Marvel
The first MCU movie to revolve around a female superhero. This was pretty much Marvel’s response to Wonder Woman. While it wasn’t the best MCU film, it is a very entertaining one.
Resident Evil
There’s been like 15 of these, right? They’re mildly entertaining and they go from somewhat realistic to downright absurd as the series progresses. The first one is still a pretty decent zombie horror movie, although the CGI might be a bit dated at this point.
Alien
Probably the first big action movie with a female lead, Alien has Sigourney Weaver take on a bunch of Xenomorphs, only to somehow become their queen in later movies. I have no idea how that worked, it’s been a while since I’ve seen them. Maybe I should binge these again.
