6 Best Villains in a Movie Adapted from a Comic Book

This is my last installment for the movies adapted from comic books and this time I shall be listing the best villains in movies adapted from comic books. It cannot be doubted that the antagonists in comic books are as significant as the heroes themselves as they help define the character of the hero. They also help in forming the image of milieu of the story.

It is very important therefore for the actor to be able to portray these villains properly. Unlike the heroes that have to have the look and the ability to play the hero as well as the hidden identity, the villain has to be able to project a level of insanity rooted on malice and pure evil.

Here is the list not in any particular order. All actors were able to portray the villains in equal excellence; they are just the best amongst the rest.

Jack Nicholson (Joker/Batman). Jack Nicholson as we all know is a fantastic actor. When they were promoting Batman during the day, I wasn’t so excited to hear that Michael Keaton was playing Batman but was quite anxious to see Jack Nicholson as Joker. Sure enough he did not disappoint me. He was able to show how Joker was before the accident and distinctly contrast this with the insane malevolent Joker that resulted from the accident. The despair, insanity and evil were perfectly portrayed.

Ian Mckellen (Magneto/X-Men). Magneto is not truly a bad man. He just has a superiority complex. A complex brought about by being ostracized. He also believes that might is right. McKellen is able to show this. The audience is able to see that his actions are rooted not because of some inner malevolence but instead is rooted in anger. There are scenes where McKellen is able to shift his facial expression from “evil” (for lack of a better term) into some kindness and compassion which he reserves only for his mutant kind.

Terence Stamp (General Zod/Superman II). Terence Stamp played General Zod in Superman II and for those who may not remember, he was the leader of the 3 criminals that was trapped inside that flat sheet looking mirror that served as Krypton prison. This was a perfect portrayal as Stamp played the character like a very intelligently. He was the villain you just can’t seem to hate. He was a very witty villain which at times was really humorous until you see the streak of ruthlessness. It was a perfect balance.

William Dafoe (Green Goblin, Norman Osborne/Spiderman I). Like Jack Nicholson, Dafoe was able to show the contrast between Norman Osborne and the Green Goblin. What made the performance extraordinary were those dialogues between Norman’s good self and his alter ego which you could see in the mirror. His ability to change his face from evil to generous father was also quite impressive.

Jeff Bridges. (Obadiah Stane/Iron Man). The manner in which Jeff Bridges played Stane was just perfect in the sense that he was able to successfully show that Stane’s motivation was solely greed for money and power. His performance was not over the top and not very comic-like. As a matter of fact, he was able to compliment Robert Downey Jr. natural and true projection of the characters in Iron Man.

Elijah Wood (Kevin/Sin City). This is one of the most perfect comic based villain portrayals in the list. The manner in which Elijah Wood was able to play Kevin, the serial killer, was so accurate to the comic book that it was as if the character in the graphic novel jumped right out of the pages and into the cinematic screen. He had the right look and the proper acting for the role. I have to say, it was divine.

So that’s my list of the best villains ever. I hope you enjoyed this themed week and I would like to thank everyone who commented on my posts.

5 Worst Movies Adapted from Comic Books

So you now know which comic adapted movies I believe to be the best. Now let’s go to the list of movies that I consider the worst and which occupied the time between Superman and Spiderman.

Batman Returns/Batman Forever. (1992, 1995). These two Batman movies had two different actors to portray Bruce Wayne – Michael Keaton for the former and Val Kilmer for the latter. Both actors are good but the manner in which these two movies were made was extremely bad. There can be no doubt that Tim Burton (1992) and Joel Schumacher (1995) used the best special effects for the films – the effects were impeccable. But the storyline pretty much just jammed all these celebrities portraying all these famous villains into one movie. The acting of all characters villain or hero was detestable as well. Definitely, these two movies did not give justice to the well-loved story of Batman no matter how star-studded it may be.

Supergirl. (1984) Supergirl was portrayed by Helen Slater during the time that Superman was dominating the screen. It was made to ride the Superman wave but it failed miserably. The movie was star-studded with Faye Dunaway, Mia Farrow and Peter O’Toole being part of the cast. But despite the accumulation of talent, the storyline was flat and simple. Helen Slater’s performance matched the storyline with her dull expressions and blah portrayal of Supergirl. She was pretty however and did look nice in that outfit.

Catwoman (2004). This movie was nothing more than to exhibit Halle Berry’s beautiful body. The story was very predictable and the acting, by both Berry and Sharon Stone, lacked enough depth that the comic book looked more 3 dimensional. The CGI effects of Catwoman’s movements were too much that it made Halle Berry looks oddly gross.

The Hulk (2003). Ang Lee is a very good director but he killed the Hulk. The Hulk is one of the more interesting 3 dimensional characters in the Marvel World as the Hulk represented the beastly irrational side of a very scientific and logical Bruce Banner. Eric Bana was not able to portray Banner as well as he should. All he did was serve as eye candy for the female audience of the movie. But Bruce Banner is one of those heroes that do not own a good-looking secret persona. Bruce Banner is a scientist not a body-building Hector looking guy. Moreover, so much time was invested on the origin of the Hulk that the story just dragged on. For an action flick there was more talking than there was any action.

X-Men III: The Last Stand (2006). What were they thinking? X-men and X2 are two movies that would be part of my top ten list (although I only made a top 5 list) but The Final Stand was horrendous. It was so obvious that there was some politics going on behind the screens. First, Storm, Halle Berry’s character all of a sudden, with no prior build up comes to the fore of the story. Granted Storm is the leader of the X-men team and is a very significant character in the comic books, but the first two movies didn’t develop that. Moreover, they kill off Cyclops and Professor X. It turned out to be a let’s just feature Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry movie. Forget the story. Forget all the other characters. Let’s just kill them off. Despite its successful beginnings, X-men the Final Stand is one of the worst comic-adapted movie. Rumor has it they will recast X-men although spin-offs starring the original cast are being made.

5 Best Movies Adapted from Comic Books

There have been numerous superhero movies adapted from comic books since I was a child. I mean, superheroes are almost in the same mainstream level as fairy tales. Girls had their princesses while we boys had their superheroes. I had my own superhero favorites from both the Marvel World and the DC World, the two main comic milieus that houses heroes like Batman, Spiderman and Superman. The problem with adapting a comic book to a movie is that there are certain expectations from the audience, especially those who have been collecting these comic books for some time. What are needed to be taken in consideration are the look of the actor, the manner in which the hero is portrayed by the actor (both hidden identity and hero persona), and the special effects. The storyline is pretty straightforward.

So here is my list of the best comic adapted movie based on the criteria mentioned above.

THE BEST

Superman/Superman II (1978, 1980). This version of Superman starred Christopher Reeves. It was a unanimous vote that Reeves look was perfect for Superman. What added icing to the cake was the man, not only was handsome enough to be Superman, had great talent to portray Clark Kent with enough humor and dorky-ness making the contrast between Kent and Superman distinct. Moreover, for a film that was made during the late 70s the effects were pretty good. Finally, they were able to make a man fly without making it look as if he was just lying down with the backdrop moving.

Spiderman I/Spiderman II (2002. 2004). Yes, there has been a big gap between Superman II and Spiderman. As a matter of fact, there was a 22 year gap between the two films. Suffice it to say, that the reason will become apparent in the worst superhero movies. In any case, Tobey Maguire, like Christopher Reeves, had the perfect look for Peter Parker. Tobey Maguire looked like a common Joe that just happened to be stung by a special spider, from which he was able to gain supernatural powers. But without his costume he still looked and behaved like the common Joe. The transition to Spiderman is not as drastic as that as Kent to Superman, as Spiderman pretty much retains the personality of Peter Parker except for the crawling on walls, and the swinging on webs. Spiderman has a mask, you see. The effects of the movie were good but what was the best was the balance between the action, the development of Parker’s character and the love story between Parker and Mary Jane Watson. The pacing of the movies allowed for all three to happen giving the audience a fantastic adaptation of the comic book series.

Batman Begins. (2005) Filmmakers had to wait for Christian Bale to grow up. How many people actually expected that the boy from Empire of the Sun would turn out to be the best Batman? Surely, he is the only Batman that actually looked like Bruce Wayne; he looked rich and intimidating at the same time. He definitely looked Alpha male unlike all others that portrayed Batman. The darkness of Batman’s character was also portrayed by the Gothic look of Gotham City – the set, the costume and the dark alleys. The gadgets and especially the bat car were impressive as well.

Iron Man (2008). Yes, this is the most recent but it has to be said that this has been one of the best comic adapted movie so far. The choice of Robert Downey Jr. was making me apprehensive at first as this guy was pretty intense in his acting. I also knew that Robert Downey Jr. was very picky with the roles that he portrays. This gave me the hint that the movie must be good albeit wrongly cast. Of course, I was proven wrong. Downey’s casual and laid back portrayal of Tony Stark was perfect. He was able to portray Stark, who still retained his flamboyant, playboy ways while showing the inner change and the focused direction that he has taken as Iron Man. The movie was properly cast as well with Gwyneth Paltrow being Ms. Pepper Potts. The chemistry of both actors was just right for the underlying tension between them. The effects were simple but impressive which makes it just right for the movie.

V for Vendetta (2005). Many will say that V for Vendetta was more talk than action which doesn’t really portray a true hero. In a sense this is true, but what has to be understood is that V was not fighting just one man, supernatural creature, or powerful entity. V was fighting against a particular paradigm as well as the people or government trying to enforce this paradigm. So essentially, he is the true hero at the same time superhero because of his skills. Well it’s very hard to say that Hugo Weaving is the perfect V as he was using a mask all throughout the movie. However, this is where talent kicks in. Weaving was able to portray a character using his voice alone – through inflections of his voice he was either able to show sadness, anger, ruthlessness and love. So in that sense, Weaving with his extraordinary talent was the perfect choice for a superhero behind a Guy Fawkes mask. The effects were simple but accurate to the story. Some may say it was slow but it was very close to the actual comic which makes it a very good adaptation.

This is the first part of my comic book adapted movie week. If you’d notice the first two franchises – Superman and Spiderman – don’t include the third movies. I don’t know…somehow I think the producers got caught in the success of the first two they got all discombobulated in making a good story for the 3^rd.

More next time on the worst movies adapted from comic books…