8. Cyclops - X-Men
Why's he hated? The website TV Tropes has a page dedicated to a stock character referred to as the "standardised leader." In weakly-written stories, the standardised leader usually gets character traits that college kids put on resumes to sound useful: "reliable" "hard-working" and "punctual," to name a few. This describes a hall monitor, though, not a likable person. This sums up Cyclops to a tee: he's a satellite character who has almost no scenes to distinguish himself. His entire role in the film is telling Wolverine not to be badass only to look shocked when he does it anyway. Good thing he told him not to bone his wife - oh wait!
Why's he underrated? Y'know what I hate about the X-Men franchise? It's not about the X-Men! It's about that goddamn Canadian carpet who calls himself Wolverine. And it's a shame that the first film focuses on him so much, because it undercuts what should have been a more important aspect of the film: the acceptance that Xavier's school is supposed to represent for the mutants. Without it, the films are just depressing. The only character we get this tender feeling from in the film is Cyclops. When Xavier is in a coma after the Cerebro attack, Cyclops talks to him while he's unconscious, reflecting on how Xavier has been like a father to him. In addition, he's the only character who acts as a reminder that the X-Men are, in fact, a team. Shocking, I know. Is this a "tour de force" performance? No - but at least it injects some of the camaraderie from the comic books that the films otherwise lacked.