Villains in movies/TV/books/games that were wasted or underused in the story.

[Parasondox]

Gooooo... okay it's been a while.

Villains, they are the ones that give the heroes an actually purpose. Without the villain, there is not hero, without the hero... will I think most villains wouldn't give a s**t about that.

I am mainly here to ask, what villains/antagonist, do you believe was wasted and just not used right at all.

Speaking from a Comic Book Movie point of view, since Heath Ledger's portrayal of the Joker in The Dark Knight, a lot of viewers and fans want to see more villains in similar light or manner and not a cheesy way that many comic books themselves actually show the main villain. Another one of Christopher Nolan's some how negative impact on how comic book movies are now done. That's another topic for another day.

Side note to that: Not everything you see in Comic Books can easily be transferred to the big screen

Also to add, King Joffrey from Game of Thrones, is one of the best villain shown on television and Jack Gleeson does a fantastic job that made everyone purely hate the character. It's a shame he is retiring... allegedly.

So, what villains do you believe could have been done better but instead just wasted away? Movies, TV, Comic Books, Novels, Games etc.

Comment, have fun with and let's chat. Also if you want my thought, recently, Malekith from Thor: The Dark World. He was just blah and meh and what a way to waste the talent of Christopher Eccleston.

 

[Anachronism]

Also if you want my thought, recently, Malekith from Thor: The Dark World. He was just blah and meh and what a way to waste the talent of Christopher Eccleston.

I was actually having a discussion just a little while ago about how villains are the one area that the Marvel Cinematic Universe really struggles with. The Red Skull and Loki have been the only good ones; the rest have either been bad, or just wasted opportunities.

My contribution, appropriately, is the Winter Soldier. Really cool, interesting character that you can do a lot of stuff with... and he's barely in the movie that carries his name. He's like The Assassin in The Raid 2: he only exists for the hero to fight at the finale. I'm sure he's there to set up the plot of Captain America 3, but it was still a real waste of a great character.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Darth Maul and Grievous are popular examples of "wasted villains". Boba Fett might be a retroactive example, if you grew up surrounded by merchandise and hype the way I did and then come all the way up to Empire Strikes Back: 3 lines of dialogue and 3 minutes of screentime. Followed by Return of the Jedi - another 3 minutes of screentime, no line of dialogue.

I hear the guy from Far Cry 3 is also a waste though I haven't played the game.

 

[Parasondox]

Also if you want my thought, recently, Malekith from Thor: The Dark World. He was just blah and meh and what a way to waste the talent of Christopher Eccleston.

I was actually having a discussion just a little while ago about how villains are the one area that the Marvel Cinematic Universe really struggles with. The Red Skull and Loki have been the only good ones; the rest have either been bad, or just wasted opportunities.

I can't disagree with you there. MCU has great heroes but the villains just kind of fall flat on their face. Nothing memorable, nothing noticeable. They are just there to keep the plot going with no real impact. DC has a great mix of villains but boy are they just wasting time and doing nothing with them. Okay General Zod and Joker yeah, but others we will have to wait and see.

 

[AustinN]

I'd say Dr. Facilier from The Princess And The Frog. It's not that he doesn't get enough screentime, but I wish they had gone into more detail on his backstory, and his relationship with his friends from the other side. A villain beholden to higher powers who'll strike him down if he screws up was something that Disney hadn't done before, and I wish they had played that up more.

 

[V TheSystem V]

Bane in Dark Knight Rises. Spoiler box just in case someone on here hasn't seen the film

Spoiler

He was menacing, brutal, and had an awesome voice...but discovering that Talia Al Ghul was pulling the strings deflated his persona somewhat. Yes, her affiliation with the mercenary was necessary for the story to make sense and for it to connect to Bruce's past, but if Bane had been the only villain of the piece, it might have been a better conclusion for the trilogy. Not that it was a bad conclusion, it was just weakened a bit by the reveal and some other discrepancies involving time-jumps and the like

Malekith in Thor: The Dark World was also on screen for far too short a time. He was essentially a means for the MacGuffin of the film to have some sort of relevance.

 

[jademunky]

Darth Maul from Phantom Menace comes to mind.

He seems like a way better fighter than Darth Vader ever was, looks totally badass, etc.

He has one line in the entire film, we get nearly nothing in terms of learning what makes this guy tick or why he does what he does.

*** Dammit Johnny beat me to it***