10 Most Disappointing Villains From Otherwise Great Movies
3. Nero - Star Trek
The Great Movie: Giving every character a chance to shine, this blockbuster offered a bit of everything, delivering humour, action and drama in a perfect combination.
The Disappointing Villain: When Nero first appears, hes silent, deadly looking, wields an incredible ship and violently kills a man without warning. If only that Nero had been present throughout the rest of the film.
His terrifying air of mystery coupled with his fantastic physical appearance goes out the window very early, when we learn that his motives are simply revenge. Making things worse is his poor characterization. He conceives a giant plan but falls prey to his emotional whims very easily, running contrary to this depiction of him as a patient strategist.
Furthermore, that Eric Bana improvised Neros speech patterns is pretty apparent. His casual word choice mixed in with repetitive yelling just seems odd the whole time and unbefitting of such a potentially terrifying villain.
While Into Darknesss use of Khan is often ridiculed, Cumberbatchs performance was one of the strongest aspects of that film. Conversely, Eric Banas performance as Nero was arguably the worst thing in an otherwise very strong film, a feat made worse by the initial expectations of him.