10 Famous Movie Villains With Lame Motivations

The Motivation: He doesn't seem to have one. However, he's miffed when Spidey forgets his name, and gets even angrier when the webhead's face appears on all the TV screens in Times Square.

With its poor critic and fan response, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 killed Sony's budding Spider-Man cinematic universe, including a host of potential spinoffs like Sinister Six. One of the biggest criticisms levelled against the film was that - yet again - Sony had crammed in too many villains, which made for an unfocused and messy movie that did a lot of things decently enough, but nothing well.

None of the villains in question had a strong showing, with Rhino barely being in the film and Goblin reduced to a snarling dumbass with a cosplay-level costume, and Electro didn't fare any better: his reason for turning bad was so poorly handled that it made him look even more pathetic than he did in his nerdy pre-villain state.

After he gets his powers by tangling with some electric eels, the confused and scared Max Dillon heads to Times Square, where he comes face-to-face with Spider-Man (the pair's second meeting, although Max wasn't blue the first time), who initially forgets Max's name. What a crime!

Then, a bit of confusion results in Max taking a bullet, which does him no harm, but causes him to lash out. Once he's calmed down, the surrounding crowd starts chanting Spidey's name and heckling Electro, and this, combined with images of New York's beloved hero plastered all over Times Square's jumbo screens, turns Max into a full-on supervillain in a matter of seconds.

What?

Max had been portrayed as a kind, gentle soul up until this point in the film, so his evil turn really does feel abrupt and unwarranted. He'd also shown Spidey a lot of love in the past too, making it even more confusing that the hero's popularity seemingly made him jealous in the moment. Of all the ways the filmmakers could have chosen to turn Max into a villain, this one made the least sense (why not have all the cops start shooting him at once, so he's forced to attack them to defend himself?) and gave a poor villain a lame start to his bad guy arc.

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Any other movie bad guys with feeble motivations? Leave your picks in the comments section!