30 Greatest Marvel Movie Villains

18. Sandman - Thomas Hayden Church (Spider-Man 3)

Marvel villains
Sony Pictures

Thomas Hayden Church was perfectly cast as Flint Marko, the criminal lowlife who falls into a particle accelerator and becomes the Sandman.

While the totally needless Uncle Ben retcon and forced sympathetic backstory both worked against Church's performance, the character's sheer physical presence, aided by some astounding CGI, made him the most visually exciting of all the Spider-Man villains to date.

Spider-Man 3 has a ton of problems, but of the three main villains, Sandman is the single one where Sam Raimi truly captured the character's essence without making too many sacrifices. Say what you want about the movie, but Church knocked this one out of the park, and even watching the film today, the effects still hold up supremely well.

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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.