Johnny Novgorod said:
In the sense of "villains failing as villains", I can think of a whole slew of them from the Marvel/DC movies. Although I kind of fancy some of his dialogue, Bane from
The Dark Knight Rises underwhelmed me. The voice felt like it was dubbed on and in a bad way, felt like they should've cast someone other than Hardy (taller, stronger, whatever, it's not like you need a great actor in the role). Not to mention the final fight was anticlimactic.
Loki is a textbook case of Much Ado About Nothing. He fails to live up to the title of Trickster God. He gets his ass handed by everyone - even Coulson, for crying out loud. It took him 3 movies to achieve anything and I might argue he's not a villain anymore. The character just rides the fanboy wave on autopilot.
IllumInaTIma said:
Now, without further ado, Moriarty from Sherlock! HOLY SHIT DO I HATE THAT GUY! Now, don't get me wrong, I see why people love him and I definitely see an appeal, but I just CANNOT take him seriously! All I see is a kid who tries to show off and wants to be scaaaaary. "Oh hai Sherloooock, how you doing handsome? I WILL KILL YOU AND ALL YOUR FRIENDS!!! Ok bai I have to go kiss ya". I just want to slap his back and send him back to his room.
I was so disappointed when Moriarty showed up for the first time. He's kind of grown on me though. They could've gone for a classier portrayal like Jared Harris in the RDJ movies, which was as appropriate as it was forgettable. At least BBC's Moriarty has a distinct characterization going on. He has this goofy diva thing going on, it's eerily magnetic.
I liked Sherlock's season 3 Magnusson, shame he's only in one episode.
Well, I think the last Nolan "Batman" movie was decent as an overall performance, but it also showed the problems with his style of doing Batman since it's difficult to tell a decent super hero story, when your trying to basically make things as far from super-hero fare while still technically qualifying as possible. Bane was done well given the limitations, but frankly they were simply incapable of capturing the essence of that character or what made it great within the rules of Nolan's movies. Something which I might add means that Bat-fans can still look forward to seeing Bane done "right" in a movie at some point even after so many other villains were nailed.
See, with Bane the entire point of the character is that he was supposed to be crazy smart, he's not capable of beating Batman straight out, even with super 'roids in the comics. Bane knows this. When Bane famously beat Batman he did it by coming across the whole "Bruce Wayne is Batman" secret but unlike every other villain to figure that out (at least temporarily) he didn't use it immediately or come straight at him. Instead he waiting until Batman was sick (everyone gets the flu) then he staged a huge Arkham breakout, then he waited until Batman pretty much fought a dozen or so members of his rogues gallery before they could get dug in while he was sick, and then waited for him in Wayne Manor. In comparison the second fight with Bane when Batman finally gets his mojo back (recovers from his shattered spine, trains with Lady Shiva, etc...) was anti-climactic, it was supposed to be, half the point was that Bane was never all that. Heck Bane pretty much ran away from Azbat shortly thereafter, Batman Vs. Azbat being a much bigger deal in terms of that whole storyline.
The closest Nolan could do really was the whole "killer instinct" thing, and to make Bane's mask a weakness he'd have to target, but couldn't really generate the same kind of drama that made Bane's introduction such an utterly awesome storyline. Nolan's movies just aren't that deep at the end of the day.... but yeah, the second fight with Bane being somewhat anticlimactic is half the point of Bane, which is why they needed to have a second gimmick running.
In short I agree with you there, and on Loki. The whole problem with super-hero movies is that they really can't give the villains the time they deserve to shine. Especially seeing as right now they are primarily selling the heroes. Overall Loki never really got much of an opportunity to sell his credentials, unlike in the comics where he has in the past defeated powerful heroes with childlike ease (even Thor) which makes it pretty dramatic when the final battles take place, since there is always a doubt whether or not even multiple A-listers can beat a well prepared Loki (and like with Doctor Doom, thinking you beat Loki doesn't mean you actually did, it might have been part of a plan). With Bane, half the fun of him was following Bane as he set up his plan, wincing as you saw how badly he had Batman's number, and doing things like breaking both of Killer Croc's arms in a sewer brawl to show he was pretty tough when on his 'roids to boot.
As time goes on, this is something we're going to need to see comic movies work on. I've oftentimes wondered if perhaps we might very well get to see some kind of "heist" movie at some point where some equivalent of "The Masters Of Evil" or "Legion Of Doom" forms with villains kicking the crap out of the heroes and the finale being them completing their scheme as a sort of "violent Oceans 11 in Spandex" finale, and creating a sense of jeopardy for the next big hero movie. Honestly that's the only way I can think to solve these problems, since your dealing with a genere carried as much by the colorful bad guys as by the heroes, a lot of the villains wind up having their own fan bases as well and even get shots doing crime books or acting occasionally as anti-heroes. Indeed one of the reasons why I hated "Iron Man 3" is that it ruined one of the more successful, colorful, and recurring super villains in Marvel... I mean cripes, The Mandarin is one of those guys you expect to give heroes a serious pounding, beat them occasionally, and even when they win they tend to really know they were in a fight.
