10 Movie Heroes Who Aren’t Exactly Good People

Dr. Octopus – Spider-Man 2

“Doc Ock” is at a distinct disadvantage on this list, in that he genuinely can’t put much of a claim to the whole ‘loveable rogue’ vibe that most of the others have. As a man, Otto Octavius was as gentle and as genuine as they come, but his conversion to villain-hood is absolute – and alarmingly quick. During a post transformation soliloquy, in which he helpfully recaps to the audience that he has lost his wife and dream, he does try to declare that he is “not a criminal”; not only is it actually too late for that however (unless he’s not counting his little rampage in the “Villains While U’ Wait” operating theatre), but Don Juan would have considered celibacy for longer than Otto resists turning to the dark side. To quote Chandler Bing, bullets have left guns slower.

Having fully embraced his new part (sorry), Doc Ock’s time as Spider-Man’s arch nemesis includes breaking into a bank, causing all manner of destruction to buildings, streets and vehicles, kidnapping Aunt May, attempting to murder Aunt May, attempting to murder Aunt May again, kidnapping Mary Jane, throwing random people to their deaths, and strangling Spider-Man. For someone who isn’t a criminal, he is doing a pretty good impression.

Dr. Octavius is rescued by two crucial things, however. The first is Sam Raimi’s delightful approach to comic-book film directing, in which we quite often get a sense of the frame-by-frame format of the original material which preserves the fun and the artistic license to ignore certain levels of character depth. The second is, of course, the role that Octavius himself plays in the end. Despite being the one responsible for the creation of the fusion reactor that will destroy the city if fully restored, after some convincing by Spider-man and a lot of mental and physical effort of his own, Doc Ock throws it into the river – knowingly drowning himself in the process.

One small spanner in the Doc’s criminal-to-hero mechanics is that he is due to return to the screen in 2016 in Drew Goddard’s The Sinister Six, as the super-villain who gathers together all of Spider-Man’s previously defeated enemies. But for now we’ll just pretend that isn’t happening, and give him the hero’s send-off he deserves.