A villain can transcend a film beyond expectations. The Joker transcended the Dark Knight into something legendary. Hannibal Lector is more memorable than the film series protagonists. Recent TV dramas have transformed the villain into the protagonist like Walter White, Tony Soprano and Dexter Morgan. The protagonists must be able to overcome powerful adversity. If an antagonist is weak, how can there be satisfaction when the hero finally defeats them? Commonly, a villain is built up as a force only for the film to contradict it when they are outsmarted or easily defeated. Worst Offender: Thor: The Dark World: Easily the most disappointing villain of 2013, Malekith the Accursed suffered from being a one note, cookie cutter antagonist copied and pasted from other action films. Christopher Eccleston, aka the Tenth Doctor, is regrettably wasted behind loads of makeup, underdeveloped characterization, and generic motivations. His history is an engaging one: Malekith lead an army of his Dark Elf race against Thor's grandfather, Bor, for control of the Infinity Stone, The Aether. Bor defeats Malekith sending him to a centuries old sleep. When he awakens, his plan consists of his elves attacking everything while he walks around. The opening prologue tells us Malekith is a ruthless, immensely powerful Dark Elf capable of great evil. He is a man determined to capture the Aether whatever the costs are. His strength, pre-Aether, is believed to rival Odin himself, and then Thor's mom beats him up. Wait what? No really, Frigga defeats him in one on one combat. His loss forces him to order Kurse to kill her. The great and powerful ruler of the Dark Elves is defeated by Odin's wife. Well if he not proficient in battle, then perhaps he is a very intelligent being? A leadership role requires intelligence. He nearly defeated Bor and captured the Aether. All he has to do is reach out and harness the power. Instead, he stands away from it to watch Bor defeat his race and send the Aether away. Not his most brilliant moment. Then, in the future he is out-smarted by two interns and an insane former scientist fresh out of the psych ward. Heck, Loki wasn't a villain this time and he was still a better villain in TDW. All the information and back-story we receive about Malekith is completely contradicted once he returns. Best Example: Kick-Ass 2: In my opinion, the best comic book villain of the year was not a Kryptonian general, a terrorist, Dark Elf, Silver Samurai, ninjas, snake women, or a superhuman business man, but a rich, pissed off nerd with a vengeance. Christopher Mintz-Plasse gave a fantastic performance as the Motherf**ker and stole the show in every scene he's in. How? Did he attack New York City with a world generator engine? Was he searching for the Aether? Did he try and steal Wolverine's healing ability? Nope, he had simple motivations; revenge against Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl for killing his father. What is so special about him though? He is a scrawny geek who can't fight, shoot a gun, or do anything right. And that is exactly what makes his character so special. Jeff Wadlow, writer and director, understood Chris D'Amico and his limits. Chris doesn't become evil Batman overnight or a super terrorist bent on destroying the world. Instead he dons a gimp suit and hires a team of supervillains to help him. Chris knows fighting Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl alone would be suicide. So he uses his best superpower, money, to tear down everything in their lives.It makes absolute sense for his character to take this route. Honorable Mention: Man of Steel: General Zod was biologically chosen to be a military enforcer on Krypton. If so, why can a scientist easily defeat him in combat? For a supposed bada*s his sidekicks, Faora and Name-Ek, put up a better fight then him.
