6. The Egg Timer
One of the most memorable villains from superhero cinema is Magneto. In fact, he is so popular among even the casual fan that he was the protagonist of
X-Men: First Class (2011), a group of mutants that he has spent most of his career trying to destroy. You know why? It's not because there is something about Magneto that is more compelling than the Sandman ... or Two-Face ... or the Absorbing Man. It's quite simple: screen time and writing. Magneto, played surprisingly by Gandalf (man, that wizard has range, huh?), was the primary antagonist of X1, X2, and X3. It connected the movies in a greater sense, made them part of an overall arching plot line, and ultimately heightened the action and the drama. Yet this obvious formula is rarely repeated (
Thor and
Fantastic Four as surprising exceptions). The cookie cutter storyline is 1) hero struggles with real-life because he's just a regular guy struggling to come to terms with his new reality, 2) new villain is created in a freak accident either blames the world or wants to use violent crime to get rich, 3) villain and hero fight twice, and 4) villain dies either by accident or by his own bad judgment. C'mon, man! Doc Ock first appeared in 1963 and he's dead in one movie! The Joker, 1940? Iron Monger, 1982? Abomination, 1967? Red Skull, 1941? Kingpin, 1967? All dead in 120 minutes or less. Easy. Convenient. Digestible. No. Wrong. Super villains are like a fine wine that have been distilled and brewed over a lengthy aging process until they are perfected crafted in their modern form. Chug them all at once and you're missing the flavor. Sip and enjoy, let it breathe, my paduwan. Did Tolkien rub out Sauron after the hobbits escaped Moria? No! Because its more exciting to have an enemy that requires several movies to build the strength and plan to successfully confront and defeat. It's wasteful and not as effective. Kinda makes each movie seem independent, disconnected, and increasingly harder to suspend disbelief that every two years another random, innocuous incident creates yet
another arch-villain with superpowers hellbent on pushing the sweet, old grandmother down a flight of steps. Wouldn't it make more sense if the mastermind of the series was the one creating new challenges or opponents throughout the trilogy to continually try to defeat his nemesis? After 25 super villain deaths, you'd think that these guys would just give up. Why wouldn't the Penguin just become an online porn magnate? Far less risk and way more money.