10 Reasons Why 2016's Blockbuster Season Sucked
8. The Villain Problem
One of the main criticisms levelled at Marvel Studios over the years has been their lack of interesting villains, which makes it somewhat ironic that Daniel Bruhl's cerebral performance as Helmut Zemo in Captain America: Civil War resulted in arguably this year's best blockbuster antagonist. Looking at the rest of the year's big-budget offerings, it would be fair to say that the bad guys were more than a little lacking.
Don't believe it? Here's a quick rundown; Star Trek Beyond's Krall? Painfully underdeveloped. The Legend of Tarzan's Leon Rom? Christoph Waltz going through the motions. Batman V Superman's Lex Luthor? Seems like he's wandered in from the wrong movie. The title character from X-Men: Apocalypse? Waste of a talented actor. Krang and Shredder? Nope. Ghostbusters' Rowan? Awful. Suicide Squad's Enchantress and Incubus? No. Just no.
A lack of interesting villains in Hollywood blockbusters has been a problem for a while now, with the franchise model seemingly causing the filmmakers to forget a fully-formed bad guy is just as important to the story as the heroes. And for the most part, this year's blockbuster villains were uniformly underwhelming.