10 Movie Villains Who Were Far Less Formidable Than We Feared

By Edward Owen /

10. Justin Hammer €“ Iron Man 2

I suppose the instant thing you could throw in my face is that he managed to blow up the Stark Expo. Well, I guess that's correct, but really, it wasn't him who did that, or at least he didn't mean to €“ that honour goes to Ivan Vanko, the real villain of the piece. Hammer just accidentally came along for the ride. I guess everyone just pales into insignificance when you put them up against the one-man wonder factory that is Robert Downey Jr's Tony Stark, but I guess that's sort of the point. Yet when you set yourself up as Stark's main rival, there's a certain level of badass we're expecting. But what we got was a guy who's easily manipulated by a bird-loving Mickey Rourke, and does embarrassing things like dance badly on stage and come up with the most excruciatingly cringe-worthy line ever summoned at a press conference. You know the one €“ 'but today my friends, the press is faced with a quite different problem. They are about to run out of INK.' Good god. I mean, sweet Jesus. The man's so chronically out of his depth that you actually cheer when Vanko gets bored and takes over. Hammer couldn't organise a villainous piss-up in a malevolent brewery, and the fact he's eventually defeated by some handcuffs tells you everything you need to know.