In the pantheon of movie history, countless terrible and insidious villains have tormented the silver screen, from Hannibal Lector to Darth Vader. But looking at a string of recent blockbuster smashes from Hollywood, it seems that the ranks of villainy seem to be suffering a recruitment lull. While a few exceptions have emerged in the past five years, the majority of box office winners and losers are missing a key ingredient: A great movie villain.
What’s the difference between the great unstoppable Terminator, the evil Emperor Palpatine, and your run of the mill antagonist? Simply put, it comes down to our expectations. Movie-goers know that in the end our hero will champion his opponent. We know the villain will fall and credits will roll. But when we can’t possible imagine what force or cunning our hero could use to take down this awesome mastermind, then we have ourselves a winning recipe. A great villain has total domination over the expectations of the climatic fight. I know Chief Martin Brody will stop the menacing Jaws, but I can’t imagine how! He's one little guy on a sinking boat and that's a monster!
Unfortunately, when we think of villains that stand on these pedestals of intimidation, there aren’t a lot of examples from the past decade. A couple exceptions are Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight (2008) and Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter series. Both projects became giant box office freight trains. In the thriller world, Alonzo Harris in Training Day makes a good showing of immorality, but it’s not hard to believe that young Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawke) can best him. And when you focus on the ‘cool’ in a villain, you’re left with only the shadow of a memory. Sure, Javier Bardem’s character in No Country For Old Men is unique and fun to watch, but do you remember his name? Do you remember how he dies? Or do you just remember that pressurized air gun?
While we long for more Darth Vaders and Aliens, more Keyser Sozes (Usual Suspects), Tyler Derdens (Fight Club), and another Se7en’s sadistic John Doe, we watch a parade of action adventures and action thrillers come through the theatres with missed opportunities. Prince of Persia, GI Joe, Sherlock Holmes, Transformers 1 & 2, X: Men 2, 3 and X:Men: Wolverine, Incredible Hulk, Indiana Jones 4, Iron-Man, Spiderman, Superman, National Treasure, Night at the Museum 1 & 2, Mission Impossible: 3, Da Vinci Code 1 & 2, V for Vendetta, and the list goes on. Even this year’s mighty box office mega-hits like Inception and Twilight lack any real memorable villains. But of all of these missed opportunities, of all of these pale evil shells, none is more disheartening than Avatar.
Our story of blue aliens follows many classic mythical story conventions, from the unlikely hero, the imaginative new world, and the love story set against an epic strife. But as Jake Sully charges into battle with Neytiri in the third act, we know he's got a fight waiting with his adversary, Colonel Quaritich. And there’s no reason to think Jake can’t take him.
Hell, he’s taller. He’s got a longer reach! Besides a couple scars, the Colonel is just a muscle bound meathead. What Avatar needed was a shadowy villain of cunning and deception. They needed to lose Giovanni Ribisi’s young day trader vibe to create a smart villain capable of challenging Sully in the end. There’s nothing wrong with strong henchmen like the Colonel, but that’s really what he was. Just a henchmen. Avatar lacks an iconic villain, and in the long run, this will hurt its longevity.
Maybe audiences just don’t want villains. Certainly with a terrible economy and too many wars, maybe the last thing we want is something that reminds us of everything wrong in the world. Maybe that’s why Hollywood softens these villains. Or maybe they just don’t see it. Regardless, when you sit down to create Hollywood’s next great villain, remember it’s important to make them unique and it’s important to make them evil, but what’s really important is to make them insurmountable. If you have your audience squirming as the hero charges into battle, kind of wanting him to turn around to protect himself, then you are on the right track. Put that villain on the pedestal and put your hero on the ground.
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