If you asked fans to name the best comic book villains of all time,
Doctor Victor Von Doom would definitely appear near the top of the list. A long-time enemy
of the Fantastic Four, Doom is one of Marvel's greatest characters — someone
who can present a threat not just to the Four but to the entire multiverse.
In the comics, Doom is a scientist, warlock, politician, and a true leader among men. His
iconic face and body armor hide one of the most brilliant strategic minds in existence,
and Doom has used his brains to take on and win against god-like beings. Doom is also
not a one-note "evil" guy but a deeply tragic figure and someone who's extremely pragmatic,
always having a good reason for his most ruthless actions.
Unfortunately, all this magnificent complexity and high-minded villainy has failed to translate
to the big screen. In the 2000s-era "Fantastic Four" movies, Doom is just some scientist guy who
randomly gets superpowers, tries to attack the Four, and gets his butt kicked. We see another
version of Doom in the 2015 reboot, this time reimagined as a computer scientist turned madman
who wants to kill off all of humanity after going insane because of his interdimensional
travels. Even actor Toby Kebbell admitted his 2015 incarnation was a misfire, saying via CinemaBlend,
"I truly believe Doom is an awesome villain ... and they
kind of always just do something goofy with it. It's a shame, it's a shame."
"It's time… to end this."
The role of the mysterious siren has been around since the earliest days of cinema.
She's the woman with the exotic clothes and accent who can send men wild with a
single glance. She's the woman who the hero and villain can spend the
entire movie fighting over. And one of the oldest Hollywood sirens is Queen Cleopatra.
From Elizabeth Taylor in 1963's "Cleopatra" to Monica Bellucci in 2002's "Asterix & Obelix:
Mission Cleopatra," most movies depicting the ancient queen like to focus on her
overwhelming beauty. This includes the fact that she was able to seduce not one
but two powerful Roman leaders — Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. But the truth is:
claims of her beauty have also been greatly exaggerated by Hollywood. Most depictions
of Cleopatra that survive on coins and as sculptures depict her as a pretty
ordinary-looking woman. The Greek historian Plutarch put it rather bluntly when he wrote,
"For her beauty, we are told,
was in itself not altogether incomparable, nor such as to strike those who saw her."
[tut tut tut] "Shhh."
It's been speculated that Cleopatra was able to charm so many men mainly due to her wit
and intelligence rather than her looks. But that angle doesn't fit very well with a visual medium
like cinema, where it's much easier to show men falling for a radiantly beautiful Cleopatra.
Victor Frankenstein, the lead character of Mary Shelley's
1818 horror novel "Frankenstein" is a brilliant doctor obsessed
with understanding and perfecting a way to create life and bring back the dead.
In the course of his research, Dr. Frankenstein builds a monster out of dead human body parts,
successfully reanimating the multi-corpse structure
and giving it human intelligence. This new creation is Frankenstein's monster,
and he's appeared in many movies over the decades as a slow-moving, barely comprehensible,
simple-minded creature. But that's not how the monster appears in the original novel.
In Shelley's story, the monster is extremely agile, fast, powerful, and self-reliant.
He's also highly intelligent, able to speak multiple languages, and strikes a hard bargain
with Frankenstein to furnish him with a mate so he can start a family. The monster from the novel is
not a literal superhero as in Aaron Eckhart's "I, Frankenstein" but a cunning, articulate,
yet deeply tragic figure who both loves and hates his creator and his own existence.
The closest thing to the book is 1994's "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein." Robert De Niro plays
a version of the monster that hews closely to the novel. But he's distinctly more handsome than his
absolutely monstrous-looking book counterpart. His intelligence is also said to be a result of
Hollywood has never had a lot of luck with pirate characters before Captain Jack Sparrow
came along. The only movie pirate with any significant currency was Captain Nemo. Still,
even calling the character a pirate does a disservice to his backstory as laid out by
writer Jules Verne in "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" and "The Mysterious Island."
In the books, Nemo is the son of an Indian king who was forced to flee from his home after the
British imperialist army attacked. A scientific visionary, Nemo had his special submarine,
the Nautilus, built from parts from all over the world, and he took to roaming the
seven seas with his crew. All the while, Nemo burned with a hatred for the British
Empire and dreamed of taking revenge against the foreign interlopers who'd conquered his kingdom.
Unfortunately, all that complex backstory is thrown out the window for the big-screen
adaptations of Captain Nemo. Most film versions of the character don't even bother making him Indian,
with actors like James Mason, Herbert Lom, Patrick Stewart, and Michael Caine playing him in various
capacities. Naseeruddin Shah was the only Indian actor to play Nemo in "The League of Extraordinary
Gentlemen," but the submarine Nautilus got more attention than Nemo in that film.
"You underestimate the Nautilus."
It's no secret that Hollywood is in dire need of compelling female action heroes.
Aside from the stray Sarah Connor or Imperator Furiosa, the action movie landscape is largely
dominated by large men with bulging biceps and more guns than they know what to do with.
And yet Hollywood has been sitting on the perfect female action star all this time.
Lara Croft was the protagonist of a series of action-adventure video games called "Tomb
Raider" that blew up in popularity in the late '90s. As the name of the franchise suggests,
Lara is an adventuring archeologist with a penchant for raiding tombs. She's a
highly skilled combatant, escape artist, linguist, and detective,
along with possessing any other skill the story needs her to have to win the day.
It can be easy to imagine Lara leading her own movie franchise as a combination of James Bond and
Indiana Jones. Yet the two attempts that Hollywood has made to turn the character into an action
movie star have given mixed results. The Angelina Jolie version of Lara existed in a world too campy
to be taken seriously. Differently, the 2018 reboot starring Alicia Vikander erred too much
to the other side, taking all the fun out of the character in its desire to be "gritty." Meaning
that thus far, fans are still waiting for a movie as good as the 2013 "Tomb Raider" video game.
Few novels in history have enjoyed the widespread popularity of the "Harry Potter" books. The series
was a publishing phenomenon before Hollywood jumped on the bandwagon, churning out eight movies
based on the novels depicting the journey of Harry on his quest to defeat the dreaded Lord Voldemort.
What made the franchise so beloved was the host of fascinating and likable side characters,
most of whom translated well to the big screen. But some weren't so lucky — like Ginny Weasley,
who in the books is a fiery, funny, intelligent character Harry finds
himself falling in love with. Fans of the novels remember Ginny as someone who's
unafraid to stand up to bullies and who speaks her mind to everyone all the time.
Unfortunately, the movies do a poor job of reflecting those qualities in Ginny,
played by Bonnie Wright. The character is a pale shadow of her book self in the films,
with hardly any important lines or scenes to showcase her spunky
nature. Ginny's relationship with Harry is also a lot more subdued,
to the point where you wonder why the two ever got together given their noticeable lack of chemistry.
If the Joker is the greatest villain from Batman's rogues' gallery, Lex Luthor is the
equally iconic archenemy to Superman. At least, that's the way it shakes out in the
comics. Despite being an ordinary mortal, the comic version of Luthor actually feels like a
credible threat to the Man of Steel in a way that no other villain from the hero's mythology does.
But the movies are a different story. Luthor is frequently seen in live-action "Superman" movies,
but he rarely comes across as a foreboding figure. The version of Luthor played by Gene
Hackman is way too campy to be threatening. There's little evidence of the laser-focused
businessman or calculating genius from the comics who's always three steps ahead of his enemies.
Kevin Spacey could've brought those qualities to the character in "Superman Returns," but
he instead chose to follow Hackman's lead in making Luthor a hackneyed Bond villain.
Then came Jesse Eisenberg's take on Lex Luthor in the DCEU,
and fans were left scratching their heads, wondering what to make of the character.
Eisenberg plays Luthor as a twitchy, nervy millennial with a high-pitched voice,
somehow managing to seem even less threatening than Hackman's version of the character. So far,
the closest thing to a live-action version of Luthor from the comics was seen on the TV show
"Smallville," where Michael Rosenbaum managed to add great depth and intelligence to the role.
Batman is one of the most popular superheroes in history,
yet despite the Caped Crusader being such a recognizable superhero,
few of his supporting castmates from the comics have been big hits on the big screen.
The thing is, Batman has a good number of superhero allies in the comics who rarely
get a mention in the movies. One of his most important allies is Barbara Gordon, aka Batgirl,
daughter of Commissioner James Gordon. Aside from being a noble hero in her own right,
Barbara has one of the most tragic character arcs in the comics when she gets attacked by
the Joker and is permanently confined to a wheelchair. Refusing to give up,
Barbara finds a second life as the cyber-hacker vigilante Oracle.
Unfortunately, all this backstory has never been shown on the big screen.
"Batman & Robin" reimagined Barbara with Alicia Silverstone as the niece of Batman's butler,
who likes street racing and stumbles into becoming Batgirl after having the costume handed to her.
"Suit me up, uncle alfred."
The Leslie Grace "Batgirl" movie was canceled before it could ever see the
light of day. And there doesn't seem to be any plan to include Barbara in the
two separate "Batman" franchises currently in development under Matt Reeves and Todd Phillips.