No, I've noticed that too. Several people still seeing it but not overly excited about it.
I think the main issue is the word has gotten out about a lame villain again when it's an ORIGIN movie. WHY people care that much about a villain is beyond me unless the Villain IS the main character
The villain thing... I think that while cliche', overused and applied wrongly a lot of the time online, there is something to be said about these types of stories needing the villains to be of some equal standing to the hero for a variety of reason, all of which do nothing but enhance the viewing enjoyment of the audience I think.
The villain should any number of combinations of these things to my eyes in the least:
Intelligent
charismatic
decisive/ruthless
savage
stylish
publicly self assured
dedicated to his/her goal
His/her motivations must be in some way well described to the audience
These mostly cover genre type villains I think and they have applied to all the greats in movie history. I think Mads in Strange is not developed or showcased enough for these aspects to shine through. When care is taken to illustrate these details of the villain's mind and power in the world, it can be nothing but good for the hero of the story. Heroes are called such because they overcome or at least attempt to overcome great obstacles or perform great deeds. So a formidable villain that's entertaining and engaging can only help anything that has the classic pop culture "Good Guys Vs. Bad Guys" structure.
I also think it's a general question of entertainment value. These films are indeed about the heroes, ideally but... The hero is not on screen at all times for a 2 hour movie. There have to be scenes with the villain that engage us too. If the villain has been given enough screen time he can be just as entertaining and engaging as the hero, which again, can only benefit us, the fans since we get more bang for our buck. Look at the track record Varth, in film anyway. What are the Bond films worth WITHOUT the long list of entertaining, cool and engaging self assured master minds and henchmen Bond comes into conflict with? What is Star Wars WITHOUT Vader? Yes, the heroes need to also be developed and have their own sheen of "cool" and I agree that there have been too many of these sort of genre films where the villains were made to overshadow the hero in some way or the hero was so idealized or shaved of any edge at all that the villain came off better in the end than the hero, since one at least had some flavor while the other was just a plain old bowl of oatmeal.
In any case, I think that villains are of real importance to super hero stories and when they are developed and handled well it's better off for everyone involved.
