10 Movie Villains Totally Ruined In The Sequels

7. Lex Luthor - Superman IV: The Quest For Peace

The Original

The first ever big-screen iteration of Lex Luthor remains decisively the best of the lot, as performed with exaggerated gusto by the brilliant Gene Hackman.

Though his plan is undeniably absurd - to nuke California in order to raise the value of his surrounding real estate interests - Hackman plays the part with just enough dangerous unpredictability to make Luthor more than an eccentric goof.

The result remains one of the most memorable supervillains in the history of the genre.

The Sequel

Though Hackman gave a fairly dignified performance in Superman II, the same can't be said for the universally-maligned sequel from which nobody emerged unscathed, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.

The fringe silliness of Lex Luthor is effectively turned inside out and the character is near enough a walking cartoon in the fourth movie.

It doesn't help at all that Luthor is tethered to his irritating nephew Lenny (Jon Cryer, who ironically now plays Luthor himself on Supergirl), and ends up creating the howlingly daft villain Nuclear Man (Mark Pillow) from a strand of Superman's hair.

Pretty much all the charm and intensity of the character is dried up by the time Superman IV rolls around, which was especially galling as many hoped Hackman's presence would serve as an apology for Richard Pryor's widely-panned performance in Superman III.