I never agreed that MCU has weak villains...

[InfinityWar]

I would say this might be the general consesus among the fans......

Great:
Loki (Tom Hiddleton)
Vulture (Michael Keaton)
Thanos (Josh Brolin)
Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan)
Hela (Cate Blanchett)
Ego the Living Planet (Kurt Russell)
Claw (Andy Serkis)
Ultron (James Spader)
Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell)
Winter Solider (Stan Sebastian)
Iron Monger (Jeff Bridges)


Average:
Red Skull (Hugo Weaving)
Whiplash (Mickey Rourke)
Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelson)


Bad:
Guy Pearce (Adrian Killian)
Abomination (Tim Roth)
Ronan (Lee Pace)
Malekith Dark Elf (Christopher Eccleston)
Yellowjacket (Corey Stoll)


Only 5 bad ones, imo out of 18 films.

 

[RomanticPenguin]

top 2 i agree but the rest...meh

3 and 4 will probably be good though I just don't know yet

 

[Fincher]

Out of the movies I've actually seen, I liked:

Winter Soldier
Yellowjacket
Red Skull
Arnim Zola
Whiplash
Justin Hammer
Alexander Pierce
Crossbones
Zemo
Scarlet Witch
Quicksilver
Ellen Brandt
Trevor Slattery, if you want to count him

I didn't like:

Iron Monger
Aldrich Killian
Savin
Ultron
Loki
Wolfgang von Strucker
The Other (I really didn't like this guy)


So in that sense, it doesn't do too bad. It doesn't have the most standout villains, though, when compared to what some other superhero movies have managed. Mostly, the ones that work are more modestly effective.

Also, it depends on what counts as a villain. If I can count Winter Soldier as one of the good ones (the best of them, actually), then can I count Hawkeye in The Avengers as one of the not good ones?

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

A handful are on the weak side, but Marvel's "villain problem" has been incredibly overstated. They have also been improving on it lately with last year producing four good ones (Ego, Vulture, Hela, and Grandmaster). People always complain about Malekith as if he's the norm, but he isn't. Far from it.

 

[Finarfiniel]

A handful are on the weak side, but Marvel's "villain problem" has been incredibly overstated. They have also been improving on it lately with last year producing four good ones (Ego, Vulture, Hela, and Grandmaster). People always complain about Malekith as if he's the norm, but he isn't. Far from it.

Agreed, the MCU certainly has it's fair share of weak villains (Malekith being the lowest point) but the issue is definitely overstated and they're noticably improving over time too which indicates to me that Marvel Studios are taking the complaints seriously. In my opinion, all three MCU movies last year had great villains (Hela being my favourite and my personal favourite MCU villain overall along with Loki), and Killmonger and Thanos certainly seem to continuing the good streak.

 

[Mjölnir]

I personally don't think Marvel Studios has any bad villains in the sense of that I just want them off my screen when I see them. What they do have are some weaker villains that aren't developed enough, or have enough focus put on them so they can shine. I haven't wanted any of them to be gone but rather would have liked to see them fleshed out more.

Outside the MCU there are certainly some villains in the genre where I just wonder what the hell I'm watching and want their scenes to be over as quickly as possible. A good portion of those are other Marvel properties.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

I personally don't think Marvel Studios has any bad villains in the sense of that I just want them off my screen when I see them. What they do have are some weaker villains that aren't developed enough, or have enough focus put on them so they can shine. I haven't wanted any of them to be gone but rather would have liked to see them fleshed out more.

Outside the MCU there are certainly some villains in the genre where I just wonder what the hell I'm watching and want their scenes to be over as quickly as possible. A good portion of those are other Marvel properties.

Outside of Marvel things are pretty dire. The last truly good DC villain was Bane. Other than Magneto, whose status as a true villain in recent years is murky (you could argue he's portrayed as more of an anti-hero), the last Fox villain I'd consider to be good was Sebastian Shaw. Trask had his moments, but wasn't given enough to do. Not counting Homecoming which was made by Marvel, the last good Sony villain was Dr. Octopus way back in 2004. The villains from those three studios are all either completely disposable and forgettable (ex. Francis, the trio from Logan, General Zod) or outright dire (ex. Lex Luthor, Dr. Doom, Green Goblin).

If Marvel has had a villain problem, Fox, DC, and Sony have had a villain catastrophe.

 

[Iceman]

The argument was more “had” than “has”. See how much worse the list looks when you take out the recent villains who have been much better.

And also compare the list to the heroes.

 

[Venom 1988]

I would say this might be the general consesus among the fans......

Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan)
Thanos (Josh Brolin)

I know the critics have praised Killmonger him but I don't think we the fans can have a general consensus until the movie actually comes out...And its way to early to be saying anything about Thanos yet.

 

[DrCosmic]

Yeah, this argument was really big back in 2014, back when it was five bad villains out of ten films. Also, the only great villains at that time were Loki and arguably Winter Soldier. Hammer might make the cut for great comedy, but no way Stane and Ultron get above average.

They've improved their villain game DRAMATICALLY from 2014 onwards. Which suggests that pitching and moaning about this one weak spot in a set of highly entertaining movies resulted in better films for all.

You're welcome.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

Killmonger and Thanos are great? Critics say that Killmoger is at least interesting, but I don't hear much about Klaw, who basically got his hand chopped off and not much more done with him. With Thanos we can tell he's great by a couple of teasers and a few more cameos?

Blonski and Red Skull are both better than average, I actually enjoy them more than the rest of the forgettable villains that are not related to Asgard or Civil War.

 

[Thör-El]

I think the "MCU has weak villains" criticism partly just grew out of Heath Ledger's Joker setting the bar incredibly high.

There's also some truth to it though. A lot of the MCU villains have great actors but don't get much of an arc beyond a scene or two rushing through the stereotypical greed/revenge/power villain motivations and the climactic fight scenes. Most of them only last one film and even within that film they get less screen time than the heroes. It makes them more one dimensional than the comic versions.

Loki, Kingpin and Kilgrave stand out to me as the best MCU villains. I'd say in large part that's thanks to appearing in TV series/across multiple films and getting the space to develop into more complex/sympathetic/intimidating characters.

 

[TheVileOne]

I wouldn't say a lot of them are great. I think a lot of them are solid and could've been a little better.

I think Blanchett as Hela certainly had potential, but I think she needed a couple more scenes to really round her out. Same with Red Skull and a couple others.

Bruhl's Zemo sucked and was an after-thought. Pointless character change. You could've grabbed any number of names to make him that character instead of freaking Baron Zemo. Why would you choose Zemo of all people for that role?

 

[Drizzle]

I wouldn't call their villains bad but many of them were underdeveloped and unmemorable save for Loki, Vulture, Ego, Hela, etc. They've really turned it around in Phase 3.

Also, why do so many people think that Winter Soldier is a villain? Bucky was brainwashed. You might as well say Hawkeye was a villain in the first Avengers while you're at it. Even if you take that out of the equation, he was more of a henchman in that movie anyway. Pierce was the real villain.

 

[hitmanyr2k]

I wouldn't call their villains bad but many of them were underdeveloped and unmemorable save for Loki, Vulture, Ego, Hela, etc. They've really turned it around in Phase 3.

Also, why do so many people think that Winter Soldier is a villain? Bucky was brainwashed. You might as well say Hawkeye was a villain in the first Avengers while you're at it. Even if you take that out of the equation, he was more of a henchman in that movie anyway. Pierce was the real villain.

Pierce and Winter Soldier were a nice combination. Pierce was the brains of the whole operation and even if Bucky was brainwashed he still had a Terminator vibe to him and was a viable physical threat. Frank Grillo did a good job in his limited time as Rumlow as well.

 

[InfinityWar]

I wouldn't call their villains bad but many of them were underdeveloped and unmemorable save for Loki, Vulture, Ego, Hela, etc. They've really turned it around in Phase 3.

Also, why do so many people think that Winter Soldier is a villain? Bucky was brainwashed. You might as well say Hawkeye was a villain in the first Avengers while you're at it. Even if you take that out of the equation, he was more of a henchman in that movie anyway. Pierce was the real villain.

Winter Soldier was a major threat and involved in the final confrontation climax against Cap. Hawkeye snapped out of his henchman state of mind to help fight with the Avengers at the end of the film. The whole idea of Winter Soldier was Captain America vs. Winter Soldier - I think he truly was the villain. Pierce was the villain too, agreed, but MCU has multiple villains occasionally once in a while.

 

[jaqua99]

By weak villains, it seems like they aren't characters. They are archetypes for "villain" that marvel uses in their movies. The majority of them are literal plot points and nothing more.

Only few of them have had character. Loki, Thanos inevitably. Ultron, although he was characterized horrifically and rushed. Winter Soldier, Alexander Peirce, Zemo. Hela was good.

Everyone else was meh, to okay.

 

[TheVileOne]

I wouldn't call their villains bad but many of them were underdeveloped and unmemorable save for Loki, Vulture, Ego, Hela, etc. They've really turned it around in Phase 3.

Also, why do so many people think that Winter Soldier is a villain? Bucky was brainwashed. You might as well say Hawkeye was a villain in the first Avengers while you're at it. Even if you take that out of the equation, he was more of a henchman in that movie anyway. Pierce was the real villain.

He kind of fits the role in Winter Soldier before he's turned.

 

[Guard82]

I've generally been fine with most of the MCU villains, even somewhat forgiving of the weaker ones like Ronan, Whiplash, Abomination, and Kaecilius because even they had a few good scenes. The only villain I thought was a big disappointment was Malekith, because he was so boring and had almost no interesting traits or interesting characterization.

Loki, of course, is the gold standard of MCU villains. And this past year, Marvel really upped its game with its newest villains -- Hela, Vulture, and Ego. I thought all three had interesting stories and cool characterization, especially Hela and the Vulture.

Among my other favorite MCU villains: I loved the Red Skull because I thought Hugo Weaving portrayed him perfectly, and I loved the Trevor Slattery Mandarin because I thought Ben Kingsley played him excellently. And even though I thought they could have done more with Ultron than they did in AOU, I really enjoyed a lot of Ultron's scenes and liked James Spader's voice acting.

 

[Guard82]

Bruhl's Zemo sucked and was an after-thought. Pointless character change. You could've grabbed any number of names to make him that character instead of freaking Baron Zemo. Why would you choose Zemo of all people for that role?

Personally, I liked what they did with Zemo in CW because it fit well with the story they were telling, and I liked Bruhl's acting. And I believe the filmmakers selected Zemo as the villain for CW because the character needed to be a uniquely strategic thinker in order to divide the Avengers, and in the comics, Zemo is always portrayed as a master strategist who always makes a lot of trouble for the Avengers. So they probably decided that Zemo made the most sense because only someone with his strategic cunning and patience could turn the Avengers against each other like that.

 

[Laderlappen]

They have stepped out lately with Vulture and Hela but before that imo the only great villain(if we exclude The Winter Soldier) was Loki. Even Loki is a little bit of a stereotypical supervillain trying to take over the world. Compared to the heroes which have all been done well. At least of the main heroes.

 

[2kt09]

• Obadiah Stane => fine, projecting villain vibes, but they went for the twist anyways
• Blomsky => not going to find another obsessed soldier who just can't take a hint & keeps juicing
• Ivan Vanko => utterly wasted outside of power displays
• Justin Hammer => coulda woulda shoulda, not worth remembering either
• Loki => used to be pretty stellar...really lost his edge & purpose after subsequent reappearances
• Red Skull => utterly wasted given the actor in said role
• Aldrich Killian => most memorable business dude
• Malekith => still can't describe who this is beyond superficial attributes
• Alexander Pierce => seems so out of place relative to what came before
• Ronan => most memorable world conqueror
• Ultron => conceptually sound if Hank isn't available, underdeveloped & 'been there done that' execution
• Darren Cross => another "gimme your tech or else" baddie
• Baron Zemo => seems out of place relative to what came before; 'been there done that' goal
• Kaecilius => always have to look up how to type this, another "gimme your...book or else" former disciple or something
• Ego => Get it? refreshing cuz the daddy issues thing is turned into a literal villain
• Vulture => think of him & his crew as evil Scott Lang & his clique
• Hela => noticing a pattern where decent Thor villains can only be made if they're related to him...
  oh and first MCU villain to single-handedly take on hordes of enemies?

Thanos & Killmonger => we'll see

 

[TheFlamingCoco]

I liked Stane and Vulture.

Zemo was a nice attempt at a villain with pathos, but felt a little underdeveloped somehow. Ultron started out nice, but then got all goofy.

 

[2kt09]

Zemo was a nice attempt at a villain with pathos, but felt a little underdeveloped somehow.

I guess because his entire thing revolved around this one bit of info that the audience is already made aware of in advance & after framing Bucky, the movie just eventually and finally goes into his reasoning. It's the kind of villain you'd expect from a cop show ep

 

[DrCosmic]

Personally, I liked what they did with Zemo in CW because it fit well with the story they were telling, and I liked Bruhl's acting. And I believe the filmmakers selected Zemo as the villain for CW because the character needed to be a uniquely strategic thinker in order to divide the Avengers, and in the comics, Zemo is always portrayed as a master strategist who always makes a lot of trouble for the Avengers. So they probably decided that Zemo made the most sense because only someone with his strategic cunning and patience could turn the Avengers against each other like that.

Indeed. Zemo was the end of the "weak villains" complaints, IIRC. At the time, even being around here, I heard zero complaints about how unfaithful he was to the comics, which I thought was really amazing and a testament to how great a villain he was, and even now, the complaint is the differences in presentation, not that he doesn't serve as a mastermind tactical opponent to Captain America and the Avengers.

Another reason it needed to be Zemo is to allow for a real surprise, which is necessary for a thriller like Civil War. When a German actor was cast, we all sort of expected the purple head sock and swordplay and all that... so no one saw Iron Man trying to kill Bucky coming... it was a great surprise, and their first great villain since Loki, imho.