I love movies. And as a writer I love characters even more. That's why it drives me up a wall when a film has a character, specifically a villain that serves no purpose or development or story. Every second given to a character we don't need takes away from the reasons we're all watching to begin with. Sometimes the villain is within, or it's existential. Save money on casting.
Redditor u/syngedsyringe wanted to discuss which films have an overload of characters by asking... What movie has an unnecessary conflict or villain?For instance, recently, Wonder Woman 1984. Where to begin? We didn't need both villains. Now don't get me wrong Pedro Pascal and Kristen Wiig were great but... we only needed one, for now. They could've built up one as the big bad for this film and laid the groundwork for the other to be the baddie for the following sequel. Just a thought.
Original was Better
Yifei Liu GIF by Walt Disney StudiosGiphyMulan 2020.The witch really killed it. (bAd)
Didn't they cut Mushu because they wanted the live action movie to be more realistic? So they put a witch in instead?
Ahoy...
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. Seriously, what was the point of the Royal Navy in that movie, other than getting Henry and Carina to meet?
We recently watched the whole series, except 4 cause that one is pure sh*t, on D+. There's a definite drop in quality after the original trilogy was over. And what a waste of David Wenham, he's in like 3 scenes before Javiers ship eats his.
Enough Dinosaurs
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
This was the first movie I've ever seen that had an ending that genuinely made me mad. We've already seen 4 movies that demonstrate that dinosaurs in the modern world are a bad idea. The problem could've been so easily fixed, but hey we need a sequel.
Generic
jared leto joker GIFGiphyThe Joker in Suicide Squad. The movie itself is crap, but he really served no purpose. He was so hyped up prior to and then he was basically cut from most of the movie and we were given a generic villain and some sky beams.
Episode 9
We didn't need Palpatine in episode 9.
The entire sequel trilogy was just not thought out, but even then Episode 9 IMO is the worst because it just feels like JJ scoured the net for every possible fan theory and thought "how can I cram them all in here at once". I also feel like, regardless of people's thoughts on TLJ as a whole, the concept that the hero could just be somebody from nowhere is way better than "somehow, Palpatine survived and you're his granddaughter".
Also, it kinda betrays Palpatine's character for him to be indiscriminately destructive on a galaxy-wide scale. He's evil, but his whole plan to gain power was by being a legitimate head of state and convincing the galaxy they'd be safer with his form of order. The Final Order is literally just Palpatine... destroying the galaxy which serves no purpose for him. It's like if they tested the Death Star by shooting every planet at once. There's no galaxy to subjugate if everyone's dead.
I concur on all of these statements. Jared Leto is fabulous but his Joker was... well I'll save my comments and be kind. He did the job he was hired to do. It's not his fault the job was superfluous. And all these others? Wasted screen time. Let's see who else can go...
Not so Sunny
Sunshine. What I loved so much about the first two acts was that there was no villain, it was just the characters having to face the consequences for their understandable, human mistakes as they realized that their journey has turned into a suicide mission.
Then they just completely shift in the 3rd act, introduce an almost supernatural villain and go into full-on B-movie slasher mode. I get the symbolism they were going for but the way they handled it just hurt the movie so much for me.
The Stab
At the end of "Pay It Forward," when the kid stabs the main kid. I recall the movie being perfectly wrapped up, they could have rolled the end credits, but then they just open a scene where the main kid is walking and gets stabbed by another kid. It didn't add anything to the plot or story development or anything, seemed to just be a tearjerker to plug in there for some extra drama points.
Damn Piper
Not a movie, but "Orange is the new Black". Piper just had to sit in there for 18 months, but then she started trying to sell underwear and crap. I stopped watching after that.
Fantastic...
Fant4stic. All of the conflicts and villains were unnecessary. Doctor Doom had no effect on the story. He was just there so they could give the audience some sort of pay off for sitting for hours waiting. The whole issue between The Thing and Mr. Fantastic could have been the point of the movie and if it were I might have had a good time, but because they draw so much attention to it without resolving it or going deep into it, it was very unnecessary. The entire movie is unnecessary now that I think about it.
Hail Mary
emily blunt ew GIF by Entertainment WeeklyGiphyThe recent Mary Poppins movie had a villain that just didn't need to exist. The first film had an antagonist which was the bank.
There was an antagonist, but it wasn't a villain. The difference being that an antagonist is simply someone who opposes the protagonist in ideals or in some other form. A villain is someone who actively goes against the protagonist and is a threat in some way shape or form. Every story needs an antagonist, but not every story needs a villain.
Yes. Yes and yes. Erase them all. Some of these films were already too long. And the others you can tell the writers were at a loss for an idea. Next time... focus on the needs of the story guys.
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