Biggest Waste of a Character?

[Flint Marko]

Only because she was pushed to the forefront in The Last Stand after Halle Berry negotiated for her to play a bigger role. She was given a lot to do in that one, for better or worse. She was underused in the other movies for sure.

I'd also say that Iceman was in the movies enough to the point where I got tired of seeing him in DOFP.

I honestly don't recall her doing anything in X3 other than getting a haircut. I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just saying it left no impression on me.

Iceman was always relegated to the part of Rogue's love interest. I'd love to see more of him in a movie not helmed by Singer.

 

[Fincher]

Storm expressed a viewpoint on the cure, went with Logan when Xavier was killed, tried to get Logan to be part of the team when he went off on his own because of Jean, and fought Callisto.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

Commissioner Gordon in the Burton/Schumacher Batman movies.

Poison Ivy tried to seduced him once.
That makes up for the rest of it.

 

[chamber-music]

This might not count (although there have been plenty of Terminator comics), but how about John Connor in Terminator 3, Terminator Salvation and Terminator Genysis?

Given that Connor is supposedly such a brilliant leader and all around badass that Skynet has been forced to send multiple killing machines back in TIME to kill him because he's so elusive and lethal in their present, once we finally got to meet adult John Connor, the results were... disappointing, to say the least.

In T3, we're introduced to Emo Drifter John Connor, who spends most of his time moping around, looking afraid and getting his ass kicked. Nick Stahl is a good actor, but he was so wrong for this role it's just sad.

Next up, we got what SHOULD have been the quintessential John Connor. They had the perfect actor in Christian Bale. They had a futuristic, war-torn hellscape setting, breaking away from the typical "send a robot back in time to kill John Connor" plot of all the previous Terminator films. And yet, this version just... sucked, because SURPRISE! This isn't a movie about John Connor at all folks! It's a star vehicle for Sam Worthington, so we spend most of the movie following his a**hole character around and periodically get little vignettes featuring Connor saying obvious things like "If the Terminator kills my mother before my birth, I won't exist." Such a weird thing to do.

And then of course you had Weird Evil Liquid Metal John Connor in the next movie. The less said about that nonsense, the better.

I agree. The battle scarred adult John Connor we glimpsed in Cameron's movie is still better than any of the adult versions we got in the last three films.

Mandarin magic rings would have been too corny lol.

His rings are alien technology and Mandrain's rings are no more corny than the infinity stones.

I've never personally felt that we've gotten a big screen Lex that's lived up to the source, but there's a lot of people who love Hackman, so maybe he doesn't count.

Ronan and Hank Pym are two I'd add from recent films. I want to add Everret Ross, but there's still a chance Marvel could turn that around.

I think the TV versions of Lex Luthor have been better than the movie versions.

I'm still slightly annoyed that they ditched the Panama Hank Ant-Man mission prologue. All we got were some old reel footage glimpse in the movie and some clips of it in the trailer. They didn't even include it as a Blu-Ray/DVD deleted scene.

 

[metaphysician]

Not only did IM3's "Mandarin" rob Tony Stark of a personal rivalry, but IM3 omitted the Makluan tech of Mandarin's rings.

Given that vast chunks of the characters history had the Mandarin only being a "rival" of Iron Man because of vague yellow peril international conflicts? I'd say the movie handled the rivalry just fine, or at least as well as any single movie can handle a long-standing rivalry: pretty much all the plot was driven by Killian's reaction to Stark, whether to try and get his approval or show him up or move beyond him.

As for the Makluan Rings, tell me: exactly what would that have added to the movie and the setting? What characters would the Makluan's bring? What iconic plots hinge on Makluan tech? What exploration of theme would they facilitate? What would they add to the MCU, aside from "the Mandarin zaps Tony with X sfx rather than Y sfx"?

 

[Doctor Octopus]

His rings are alien technology and Mandrain's rings are no more corny than the infinity stones.

Making them magic rings is corny. A gun not corny but if you have character using pink sparkly gun as weapon it look corny.

 

[Guard82]

That may be one reason why they made the Extremis formula the main offensive weapon associated with the Mandarin in the movie, while the rings were simply symbolic of the Mandarin's regal status and image. If we ever see the alien tech rings, they would have to show up in a movie that involves aliens more directly. IM3 was meant to be a purely Earth-based sci-fi/action flick centered in Iron Man's tech-based world.

 

[Silvermoth]

I do regret Crossbones being written off so quickly. So much potential there.

 

[Yowza]

Honestly I can't say there's 1 specific example that sticks out head and shoulders above all others.

I thought Harry Osborn's turn into the Green Goblin in the Spiderman series never really got his due for some reason never looked the same as the actual Green Goblin like his counterpart did in the comics. I didn't even bother watching the Amazing Spiderman sequel but from what I could tell he looked ridiculous and they switched him instead (although moreso as couldn't access it on Netflix and limited means to watch at moment) of Norman with Gwen's storyline so managed to do something worse than the Spiderman 3 film as at least that one had the first 2 movies to build him up the right way just didn't deliver all the way I wanted it to.

I read spiderman comics as a kid (although not so much ones with Harry Osborn as he was killed off in Spectacular Spiderman 200 I believe) but the character always sort of lingered casting a shadow from time to time (Pursuit being 1 storyline and another 1 shot read had this as well). I didn't really feel the movie's really delivered when it became time for the change into the Goblin.

Not saying so much this is the biggest waste but was something that kind of bothers me now that I think of it as these were the comics I read as a kid I suppose.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

If we are just going by individual series, then Norman Osborn in TASM is probably the biggest waste I've ever seen. Doom may have been horrible, but at least he was still the villain in those films. Here we have Spider-Man's arch-nemesis, one of the greatest baddies in all of comics, and he never even meets Spider-Man. You couldn't use a character worse if you tried. TASM2 was such a horrible movie.

 

[Lantern Venom]

Given that vast chunks of the characters history had the Mandarin only being a "rival" of Iron Man because of vague yellow peril international conflicts? I'd say the movie handled the rivalry just fine, or at least as well as any single movie can handle a long-standing rivalry: pretty much all the plot was driven by Killian's reaction to Stark, whether to try and get his approval or show him up or move beyond him.

As for the Makluan Rings, tell me: exactly what would that have added to the movie and the setting? What characters would the Makluan's bring? What iconic plots hinge on Makluan tech? What exploration of theme would they facilitate? What would they add to the MCU, aside from "the Mandarin zaps Tony with X sfx rather than Y sfx"?

Uh, no. He's not just a thinly-veiled racial construct. In many ways he's Stark's polar opposite. He's resentful of a world that left him poor, including his own government. As MCU Tony strives to use his fortune to make clean, efficient energy for all the world, it would have been perfect timing for an anti-societal villain who thinks the world is inherently unfair and needs to be torn down and completely rebooted. You should go to the Iron Man boards on SHH and read the posts by 2002Spideyfan in the Mandarin thread. He's a much bigger fan of Iron Man than I am and he told the history of their rivalry with stunning expertise.

Moreover, Marvel missed out on giving Tony an adversary who was his intellectual equal, his physical superior, and who should have been in possession of technology that outclassed any of Tony's weaponry. Don't take my word for it. Look at all of the aspects of the Ten Rings:

http://marvel.wikia.com/wiki/Mandarin's_Rings

It would have been glorious, especially if it led to Fin Fang Foom showing up.

 

[Lantern Venom]

I do regret Crossbones being written off so quickly. So much potential there.

Crossbones was good for the time he was given, but I agree that he could have stuck around longer. He was much more interesting than "Zemo" and he could have just as easily been the one to push the Avengers into war with one another.

 

[NotNickFury]

Venom in Spider-Man 3. But given how much Raimi wasn't a fan of the character and since Eddie was practically a footnote, it's no surprise that Venom comes off a joke that feels even more shoehorned in than Gambit in X-Men Origins.

And I wouldn't necessarily call this a waste, per se, because what happens to this character does serve the story, but I could see some folks being upset that Ben Urich's death in Daredevil eliminates any possibility of him appearing in the Spider-Man films. Not that the films needed him.

 

[metaphysician]

That may be one reason why they made the Extremis formula the main offensive weapon associated with the Mandarin in the movie, while the rings were simply symbolic of the Mandarin's regal status and image. If we ever see the alien tech rings, they would have to show up in a movie that involves aliens more directly. IM3 was meant to be a purely Earth-based sci-fi/action flick centered in Iron Man's tech-based world.

They could, in theory, have done an Iron Man 3 where alien tech rings would have fit. Its story would be a continuation of Tony's reaction to Avengers, and the appearance of aliens. This would pretty much mean ditching the *entirety* of the existing plot, and starting utterly from scratch, because its a complete swap of premise. Among other things, this would mean "No Fake Mandarin", as there'd be no thematic room left for such a plot. You could have your Guy with Magic Rings, but you wouldn't be able to have your Nolan/TDK dreams.

 

[Yowza]

What was frustrating about the Spiderman films is the trite ways they constantly would try to connect things, repetitiveness, as well as just not really delivering with certain characters while getting a lot right.​

The Fantastic Four movies (haven't seen) I could tell from the trailers were popcorn extravaganzas to a capital "P". I just could tell a lot was a waste. The newer re-launch version I won't even comment on (although surprisingly I think a good movie could've been made out of the available concept and cast members/approach even though different but just was a trainwreck unfortunately). I guess to be disappointed a film has to be doing something right in the first place to make a single character within it seem like a total waste sometimes and that's how it is for me with some of the characters on the Spiderman films. In the ASM films, Norman it seems they switched out in favor of Harry and from what I heard preserved his head or something to come back as some giant monster like the Ultimate version perhaps... Things bit too scattered and the Amazing films just weren't amazing enough to get to where they needed to be. Studio interference (playing it safe and shooting themselves in the foot) is inexplicably constantly to blame for a lot of major failiures unfortunately.​

As for Venom in Spiderman 3, I think the anti-parker was a different approach but biggest waste was inserting him into a film where already too much was happening. Raimi kind of tenuously tried make something out of it being Peter's own internal angstful journey wearing a dark suit, discovering Sandman involved with uncle Ben, and of course re-uniting with Harry to battle Sandman then of course stop the symbiote suite attached to the anti-parker, ect. Pretty corny movie overall. A lot of waste but just picked Harry as his villain turn had been foreshadowed for some time and didn't deliver I feel while the others were just kind of thrown in.​

 

[BullMcGiveny]

Either Strucker or Baron Zemo (particularly Heinrich) could have been used to relaunch Hydra or some similar entity. If Marvel Studios doesn't intend to recast Red Skull, it should have been reasonable to expect one of Cap's other iconic villains to assume an ongoing antagonist role with both Steve and the Avengers. But now we have Strucker dead, Zemo pouting in a cell with no mention of his father, and Zola presumably dead. I hope Marvel Studios has plans for Madame Hydra, Baron Blood, or Sin Scmidt since they have cleaned out the cupboard so quickly.

But they have, he died trying to protect Zemo's kids and wife.

 

[Lantern Venom]

But they have, he died trying to protect Zemo's kids and wife.

And unfortunately, that was.worse than leaving it mysterious.

 

[Rowsdower!]

I liked Zemo. Maybe if I was more familiar with the comic book character, I'd be angry over how much they changed him but I thought he was an interesting villain.

 

[Yowza]

I watched Civil War on Netflix about a week ago. I didn't think with the minimal time Zemo would be much of a presence but I was wrong. The actor did an appropriate job at making him menacing as well which I was surprised at as the actor doesn't look the most menacing.

However, that's where it ends. I have to say the guy mocking Zemo at the end of the movie was right and Zemo didn't really trump that response by saying "Was it?". After the movie I re-visited that and thought "Yeah". lol This was the type of movie where really good on first viewing but few things play off bit silly I think when thinking about afterward. I mean really, the head of the Master's of Evil from the comic book (no cool looking mask mind you) is all boo-hoo about his family and that's it and the Black Panther gives him sympathy as the character can't stand up to him after what he did to his father? I won't say it's a total waste of character as did get the sense of him as a master manipulator/slick operative from the film though.

 

[Guard82]

I liked Zemo. He was smart, strategic, eloquent, and passionate -- all the traits I wanted Zemo to exhibit in his big-screen debut. The changes to his character worked for me because they helped translate him from comic book to film in a way that felt natural and fit the world of the MCU. Overall, I thought Zemo was one of the better-written Marvel movie villains.

 

[MichaelChen]

Given that vast chunks of the characters history had the Mandarin only being a "rival" of Iron Man because of vague yellow peril international conflicts? I'd say the movie handled the rivalry just fine, or at least as well as any single movie can handle a long-standing rivalry: pretty much all the plot was driven by Killian's reaction to Stark, whether to try and get his approval or show him up or move beyond him.

As for the Makluan Rings, tell me: exactly what would that have added to the movie and the setting? What characters would the Makluan's bring? What iconic plots hinge on Makluan tech? What exploration of theme would they facilitate? What would they add to the MCU, aside from "the Mandarin zaps Tony with X sfx rather than Y sfx"?

None really. The comic Mandarin's first story was him stealing Stark's missiles and repurposing them in an attempt to start World War III. He makes several attempts to cause World War III, via things like destroying China's rice-crops to make them starve and thereby provoke them into desperation invasions of surrounding countries. He kidnaps Stark and other scientists to create the Dragon of Heaven in Busiek's run. He kidnaps Maya Hanson to force her to perfect Extremis, then tries to use mundane missiles to launch them everywhere. His best stories are basically James Bond type gritty stories about the misuse of vast amount of money, political power, and criminal resources. The Makluan tech is a lot like Joker's acid-shooting-flower: it's a cool visual in the comics, but the second Bale-Batman movie doesn't have it and never misses it. It's far more crucial that Joker be a gleeful nihilist using terroristic jokes to make an ugly point about human nature. By the same token, it's more important for The Mandarin to be an ubermensch, superficially perfect in mind and body, who uses science, politics, vast wealth, and criminal resources to spread war and exploitation out of blend of Ayn Rand, aristocratic, and social-darwinian thinking.