10 Movie Villains Who Were Far Less Formidable Than We Feared

5. Scarecrow €“ The Dark Knight Saga

scarecrow dark knight rises I guess it's kind of the point for Cillian Murphy's Scarecrow to be a bit rubbish €“ after all, he's an inhabitant of the Christopher Nolan Batman universe, which means he's a living, breathing human, devoid of any superhuman powers. But even then, that didn't stop Ra's Al Ghul, The Joker or Bane (yeah, I said it) being awesome. Yet when it came to Dr. Jonathan Crane, Nolan decided to scrap the regular villainy and give us a punching bag. The fact of the matter is that Nolan probably could've done more with him €“ yes, comic book Scarecrow isn't exactly physically imposing, but he's incredibly smart and capable of more than holding his own in the super-villain stakes. Yet in the Dark Knight saga he seems to be nothing of the sort €“ he goes from a pawn in the League of Shadows' operation to an ineffectual villain in Batman Begins, before rocking up as a minor league enemy in The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises. Really, it's a shame. When one of the most celebrated villains in the Batman mythos is defeated by Katie Holmes' tazer and can't even summon the wherewithal to rise back up the criminal ladder come the sequel, you know he's not onto a good thing. He's just a bit of an idiot €“ his silly decision to turn up to his own drug deals in a city where the tide is turning against organised crime is almost laughably stupid, and the fact he's almost incapacitated by the Bat-vigilantes tells its own story. I guess he does get a sweet gig as a 'judge' come the final film, but really, they could've stuck anyone atop that mountain of debris. What happened to you Dr. Crane? You used to be cool.
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Contributor

Durham University graduate and qualified sports journalist. Very good at sitting down and watching things. Can multi-task this with playing computer games. Football Manager addict who has taken Shrewsbury Town to the summit of the Premier League. You can follow me at @Ed_OwenUK, if you like ramblings about Newcastle United and A Place in the Sun. If you don't, I don't know what I can do for you.