These movies went out of their way to destroy awesome characters. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the best characters done the dirtiest by their own films, usually through bad adaptation of the source material or simply bad writing.
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00:00Welcome to WatchMojo and today we're counting down our picks for the best characters done
00:12the dirtiest by their own films, usually through bad adaptation of the source material or simply
00:18bad writing. Warning, major spoilers to come.
00:31Number 14 Lex Luthor – Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice
00:41This film was disappointing on many levels, including box office wise, performing below
00:47expectations. An even more egregious misstep was this polarizing reinterpretation of Lex
00:52Luthor. Jesse Eisenberg's Lex Luthor is younger, awkward and almost manic in taking
00:58down Superman. While far from the standard rational genius characterization, this interpretation
01:10is seemingly based on Mark Waid's Superman Birthright series. Unlike in that comic however,
01:16Eisenberg's Luthor has no childhood relationship with Superman. It may work for casual viewers,
01:22but for fans, this reimagining goes too far astray. He may as well be a totally different
01:27character altogether.
01:36Number 13 Freddy Krueger – Jason Voorhees Speaking of two heroes fighting, what about
01:50two villains having an ultimate showdown? Unfortunately, this early aughts crossover
01:56managed to squander its premise's potential, dissatisfying both fandoms. Jason fans were
02:01disappointed to see him allied with teens to stop Freddy and disliked how the film was
02:05based more on the Elm Street world than the Friday the 13th. Freddy fans griped about
02:17Jason getting a high kill count. Fans also lamented that Kane Hodder couldn't reprise
02:21his role as Jason, with Ken Kersinger playing the role. The film managed to kill the mystique
02:26of not one, but two iconic horror murderers.
02:37Number 12 Jean Grey – Dark Phoenix A soft reboot of X-Men The Last Stand, this
02:52film's origin story for Jean Grey manages to mangle her character even further. After
02:58learning her father is alive from the car crash that killed her mother, Jean sets out
03:02to find him. When she learns her father abandoned her because her powers had caused the crash,
03:06Jean breaks down and accidentally kills Raven. This makes less sense than her actions in
03:18The Last Stand, where she kills Charles Xavier for keeping the truth from her and suppressing
03:22her powers. If the idea was to get justice for a character done dirty in the past, killing
03:27a random mutant and sacrificing her life to save the world isn't the way to do it.
03:41Number 11 The Man in Black – The Dark Tower
03:54This adaptation of Stephen King's novel series of the same name had been in production
03:58hell for years. Not only was it a dud for general audiences, it was a massive disappointment
04:04for fans, especially because of the villainous Man in Black. Obsessed with taking down the
04:08Dark Tower and ruling the universe, the Man in Black plays a much bigger role in the books
04:13than in the film, conceived by King as the consummate charismatic villain. To see Matthew
04:28McConaughey's more grounded Man in Black defeated in the end and forced to deliver
04:32exposition was disappointing to say the least.
04:46Number 10 Joker – Joker Fully Ado
05:01Making a sequel to a standalone film like 2019's Joker was already a very risky move.
05:08Turning it into a musical was even more so. Arguably the true damage done was to Joaquin
05:13Phoenix's Arthur Fleck. From the get-go, this film made it clear that it was no comic
05:18book origin story of an iconic villain, but a character study of Arthur Fleck. Fleck even
05:35gives up on his Joker alter ego, realizing it was just a shield to the Fleck responsibility.
05:40As the last slap in the face to the fans of the character, it is revealed that the Joker
05:44we know wasn't Fleck himself, but a fellow inmate who admired Fleck's crime, even usurping
05:50him. Talk about assault to injury.
05:59Number 9 Michael Myers – Halloween
06:13Another slasher film ruined by the remake. This remake of the classic John Carpenter
06:18film is an origin story for Myers as he gets taken to a sanitarium and finally escapes
06:24to terrorize Haddonfield's residents. Humanizing Myers as an institutionalized result of a
06:29broken home only raised more questions than answers. For instance, if Laurie was Myers'
06:43sister and if Myers cared for her in his younger years, then why would he terrorize
06:48her and kill everyone close to her 15 years later? The motivations are not ambiguous,
06:53they are nonsensical. Perhaps it was better when Myers was just a man in a mask.
07:04Number 8 Thor – Thor Love and Thunder
07:16This affable Norse god took a turn for the worse in this tonal clash of a Thor film.
07:21In this installment, Thor must team up with now superpowered ex Dr. Jane Foster. The result
07:26is an awkward, fumbling second chance romance that doesn't quite deliver. It doesn't
07:31help matters that Chris Hemsworth, more light hearted Thor, no longer has the character
07:36arc established in the previous entries. Hemsworth even admitted in 2023 that the film went over
07:48the top in the wacky humor, feeling Thor has become a parody of himself. There is a
07:53clearly thin line between comedy and clownery.
08:04Number 7 John Connor – Terminator Genisys
08:15Granted, the T-800 was also a victim of bad writing, but John Connor suffered a major
08:20blow in this installment, perhaps ruining him for good. In this reboot, Connor is no
08:25longer the future resistance leader against the machines, but an evil terminator who goes
08:30back in time. It turns out that Connor was attacked by Skynet and turned into the T-3000.
08:35His mission is to prevent Sarah Connor and the T-800 from destroying Skynet's Genesis
08:49system. The film ends with Connor's death at the hands of the T-800. What? Naturally,
08:55fans cried foul at this literal character assassination. You just don't turn a hero
08:59into a villain without very good reason. And this wasn't it.
09:12Number 6 Venom – Spider-Man 3
09:20This third installment of Sam Raimi's trilogy is clearly the most flawed. One of its worst
09:25mistakes was bringing in Venom as the villain. The problem is not just that Raimi was forced
09:30to include the character due to studio interference. Topher Grace's Venom does not have much
09:34to do, having to compete with Sandman in an already bloated film. The fact that Raimi
09:50admitted to not liking Venom, preferring Vulture to be the third movie villain, only made matters
09:55worse. Maybe Vulture would have been the better choice after all.
10:05Number 5 Indiana Jones – Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
10:18The problems with the fourth Indiana Jones films are too many to count. Arguably the
10:22worst victim of this mess was Indy himself. The film's many gags about his age were
10:27groan-worthy and the slapstick at his expense tilted into the cartoonish. Then there was
10:32the infamous scene that had Indiana hide in a fridge from a nuclear bomb. Most damnably,
10:48Jones has even less agency than in the previous installments with the aliens killing the bad
10:53guys. 2023's Dial of Destiny didn't redeem the character, turning Jones into the sidekick
10:59of his own movie. A sad fate for a beloved adventurer.
11:16Number 4 Ernst Stavro Blofeld – Spectre
11:29This James Bond villain is one of the most iconic, perhaps the your example of a villain
11:34introduced with his face obscured stroking a white cat. Great villains are like weapons.
11:38Not all of them are suitable for all fights. In this case, including Christoph Waltz Blofeld
11:43opposite Daniel Craig's Bond was a mistake. For one thing, the film had the risable idea
12:00to make Blofeld our hero's adoptive brother, taking on the alias in his revenge quest,
12:05resenting Bond for being his father's favorite. This cheap Cain and Abel plot twist is the
12:10same one done in Austin Powers as a parody. It's a waste of a legacy villain.
12:34Number 3 Captain Jack Sparrow – Pirates of the Caribbean on Stranger Tides
12:40Few franchises have such a bigger than life character as Captain Jack Sparrow,
12:49and he is great as a comic supporting character, not a protagonist. On Stranger Tides,
12:53attempts to make a main lead out of this pirate lord is undoubtedly a failure. In this entry,
12:59Sparrow is forced to serve Blackbeard in searching for the Fountain of Youth.
13:02Having to watch the pirate work for someone else on a goal he himself has abandoned is dull,
13:15to say the least. Even his madcap brilliance is missing. Without Will and Elizabeth,
13:19Sparrow's lack of agency and his inability to carry a whole film is glaring.
13:24Number 2 Everyone – The Last Airbender
13:42We are all familiar with the car crash spectacle of this infamous film adaptation,
13:46based on the beloved animated series. Beyond floating rocks and other lore breaking blunders,
13:51there was the insane character assassination. Sokka is no longer funny, Katara lost her fiery
13:57personality and powerful bending, and Aang lost pretty much everything that made him Aang.
14:11Then there was the fact that white actors played the heroes, while Indian actors played the
14:16villainous Fire Nation characters. Add in the exposition laden dialogue, the poor acting,
14:22and the results are a complete nightmare. RIP Aang and co.
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14:53Number 1 Everyone – Fantastic Four
15:03This origin story is nowhere close to being fantastic. After their teleporter explodes
15:08giving them powers, friends Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben eventually decide to use their powers
15:13to help people as the Fantastic Four. Part of Four's charm was their sense of found family and
15:18camaraderie, all but missing here. The team's powers are also severely underused and their
15:34individual motivations muddy. Let's not forget what they did to Doctor Doom. From his weird
15:39plastic-like appearance to his lack of clear motivation, this iconic villain was all but
15:43wasted in his film. With such shoddy character assassinations, it's no wonder it's one of the
15:48lowest rated superhero movies. Which other great characters do you feel were ruined by their own
16:07film? Let us know in the comments down below.