20 Movie Villains Who Were Unbelievably Petty

Not every cinematic villain can be along the same lines as, among many others, greats like Darth Vader, Thanos, or the Joker. They can't all want to rule the world, save the world, or watch the world burn.

At the other end of the scale are those bad guys less idealistic, motivated more by something personal, and at the deepest level, far more petty. It's something of a double-edged sword, as it can help connect and bring a familiarity to the audience because revenge is something more accessible than megalomaniacal rage, but on the other hand, there's the risk of it coming across as a poor and shallow reason for doing something.

A villain could be terrifying in theory, but somewhat undermined by holding a childish grudge, whereas there are those rivalries that benefit from being made personal.

The following 20 antagonists on this list cover the whole spectrum in regards to the above, from a fighter who believed his friend stole his life from him, to a thieving duo that wouldn't allow themselves to be bested by a child, and even a man asking God to kill someone over the slightest transgression.

After two outstanding efforts in 2002 and 2004, Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy was completed in 2007 with by far the poorest outing of the lot. The list of things wrong with the film is upsettingly long, but at the top, you'd have to put that there were just too many villains. 

Having to balance Harry Osborn (James Franco) with Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church) and Eddie Brock (Topher Grace) meant that the latter, in particular, was left wanting in terms of screen time and character development. You'd like to think that with a movie focused squarely on Spidey vs. Venom, there would have been a much better version of the Lethal Protector produced.

Instead, seemingly squeezing conflict between the two in as few steps as possible, Brock took to church, literally praying to God to kill Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) because Parker rightly outed him as plagiarising the pictures that earned Eddie a job at The Daily Bugle.

This was before Eddie Brock was even Venom, and before he knew Peter was Spider-Man. This was going from 0 to 100 on a ludicrous scale. Yes, it would have been understandable to hold a grudge, as, from Brock's perspective, Peter took his job and his girlfriend from him, but to actually pray for Peter's death? Particularly as Eddie himself was guilty of plagiarism and never had Gwen Stacey's (Bryce Dallas Howard) heart anyway? Insane.