A problem with many movies of the action genre is the over writing of villains. The story needs a villain, but writers sometimes don't know were to stop writing. Sometimes the writer just puts in the most generic things he can think of as filler and then forgets about it. You would think that a celebrated franchise like James Bond would make sure their villains weren't one of these. Well you'd think wrong. While there are some beautifully acted and written villains in Bond film history, there are also the actors who were unfortunate enough to get the scripts that even Brando couldn't make work. The following are a few such roles I wish were just written a little bit better, because in all cases the actor who is playing the part could have made these villains some of the greatest in the Bond franchise. But alas, they were never given any help in doing so. I would also like to make clear that I love the James Bond franchise. Which is why I hold them in such high regard. So here are the 7 villains who weren't up to par with the rest, due to no fault of the actors who played them...
7. Robert Carlyle As Renard - The World Is Not Enough (1999)
Here is a villain who could have been interesting. From the build up in the pre-credit sequence in the bankers office, you are led to believe he made sure Bond is able to get the money to London with help from the sniper. That way Sir King will get the money and it will kill him. Thus showing forethought and intelligence. Then to try and show him to be more than even that, they throw in the bullet in the brain that will eventually kill him. He is unable to feel pain. Who gives a flying f**k?! He is the bad guy. Can't you give him a better reason for being the bad guy? I know a few people with concussions and brain trauma from rock climbing accidents. They aren't evil a**holes. Yes, some of them can be a**holes at times, but they usually think they're being funny cause you fell for the old shaving cream in your sleeping bag bit. It was a $100 sleeping bag. I bought it especially for the trip cause it was going to be bum f**k cold in February in the Cascade Mountains. Bunch of a**holes. Anyway, I digress. Renard had the potential, much like some of the others on this list, to be a good villain. But the writers tried too hard to make the plot what they wanted and not what the film needed. They made Elektra King into the mastermind, leaving Renard in the thug category. They took away all that they had built for his character and stripped him down to a henchman. They turned him into the leather jacket wearing rebel who falls in love and helps the rich bitch get revenge on daddy. Robert Carlyle was not bad in his portrayal, but an actor can only do so much with what they are given in the script. The writers didn't know where to stop and wrote Renard into dust. The climactic battle at the end doesn't feel emotionally charged like it should have. Bond had killed the mastermind, Elektra King, already. Renard in the end becomes a disappointing bookend, in a lackluster bond film. One that could have been- should have been- better.