8 Amazing Characters In Awful Superhero Movies

As superhero movie fans know all too well, not every comic book character leaps off the page and onto the screen with spectacular results. For every Guardians of the Galaxy, there's a Green Lantern. For every Captain America: Civil War, there's a Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice. Yet, just because the movie did not gel as a whole that doesn't mean it was entirely devoid of merit. Oftentimes, a bad superhero movie will feature at least one great character who can keep you entertained while the rest of the film sends you to sleep. It doesn't happen often, but here are eight instances where awesome characters were stuck in crappy superhero films. As always, feel free to take to the comments section after reading to let us know whether or not you agree with our choices. 8) Kingpin – Michael Clarke Duncan, Daredevil For years, 2003’s Daredevil was a sore point for fans of Marvel’s Man Without Fear, who were bitter that the hero was not adapted well for the screen. Since the success of the Daredevil TV show, however, the film has been swept under the carpet, and while most of it does deserve to be forgotten, one element of it is worth remembering. Though perhaps not as layered as Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk in the Netflix series, the late, great Michael Clarke Duncan’s take on the Kingpin of Crime is still a terrific portrayal of the villain and probably the strongest part of the film. As well as being suitably heavy-set and ruthless, Duncan brings a charisma to the crime boss that makes him great to watch. He’s a hell of a lot better than most of the underwritten villains of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, that’s for sure. 7) Human Torch – Chris Evans, Fantastic Four If you know your superhero movies, you’ll probably already know that before he picked up Captain America’s shield, Chris Evans played another, very different, Marvel superhero. He was the The Human Torch in 2005’s Fantastic Four and its equally meh 2007 sequel Rise of the Silver Surfer. Despite the poor state of the films he is in, Evans absolutely nails the part of Johnny Storm, perfectly capturing the roguish charm of the hotheaded youngest member of the team. As he winds up the rest of the Four with his incessant pranks and needling comments, the rest of us are finally having some fun. It’s a testament to Evan’s range that it’s such a different performance from the stoic Steve Rogers. 6) Beast - Kelsey Grammer, X-Men: The Last Stand The X-Men franchise has never really understood the meaning of the phrase ‘less is more,’ and the most heinous example of this is X-Men: The Last Stand, which proceeded to throw in as many new mutants as it could to up the ante. Unfortunately, the only thing it upped was the length of the credits, causing the whole movie to sag. One of these additions did manage to shine through the gloom, however. The silky-voiced Kelsey Grammer was a perfect choice for Beast AKA Dr. Hank McCoy, whose animalistic appearance hides a sophisticated and highly intelligent man. He doesn’t really get too much to do, but his presence is enough to make him one of the film’s few plus points. 5) Sandman – Thomas Haden Church, Spider-Man 3 Spider-Man 3 sadly let the side down after the brilliance of Spider-Man 2, as it mistakenly increased the goofy humour, sentimentality and villain count from the previous films. The result meant that both Harry Osborn’s New Goblin and Venom ended up falling flat. The movie’s other villain, Sandman, somehow made it out with some dignity intact. Sure, it's an eye-rolling twist that he's in fact Uncle Ben’s real killer, and the sick daughter backstory is a little much, but the character is still a highly sympathetic bad guy and is brought to live by both a good performance from Thomas Haden Church and some (mostly) amazing CGI that's still impressive even today. The character’s best scene is, of course, where Flint Marko is first affected by the matter dispersal experiment and he becomes Sandman. In fact, it’s probably the single best part of the whole movie. 4) Quicksilver – X-Men: Apocalypse Evan Peters’ Quicksilver already stole the show in the brilliant X-Men: Days of Future Past, so it was a no-brainer to bring him back in the follow-up, X-Men: Apocalypse, with an even bigger role. This time, however, the character ended up being one of the few good things on show. While the rest of Apocalypse is populated by the old hats going through the motions or the new cast being under-utilized, Quicksilver breezes through it with the same easy charm and terrific execution of his powers that was evident in Days of Future Past. Sure, the X-Mansion rescue scene is basically a longer reshoot of the 'Time in a Bottle’ sequence, but it still remains one of the most memorable bits of the film. Seeing as Quicksilver has now properly joined the team, we look forward to seeing even more of him whenever the next X-Men movie turns up. 3) Gwen Stacy – Emma Stone, The Amazing Spider-Man While the relationship between Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker and Kirsten Dunst’s Mary Jane is an iconic one, The Amazing Spider-Man's love interest absolutely trumps the characterization of MJ (who, let’s face it, did little more than scream and get captured). In Emma Stone’s Gwen Stacy, the films had a nicely rounded character with her own intelligence and agency. In particular, this is true of the first Amazing film where Gwen's growing relationship with Andrew Garfield’s Peter is the heart of the movie, and feels like a believable teen romance. The second one slightly misses the mark, as Peter creepily tries to disrupt her from living her own life, but you still can’t fault Stone’s portrayal of the character. On the whole, Gwen is one of the few legitimately amazing parts of his mislabeled franchise. 2) Batman – Ben Affleck, Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice A strong case could be made for putting Wonder Woman on this list, as she does bring some much-needed kick to the film when she appears for the first time in costume during the climax. However, she isn’t really in it enough to steal the movie. Despite sharing billing with the Man of Steel, BvS really belongs to Ben Affleck’s Batman. Whatever your feelings on his overzealous attitude to taking down criminals, the Batfleck is a fascinating take on the Dark Knight and a lot more interesting than the film's sadly anaemic presentation of Superman. This is a Batman who has been turned into a murderous misanthrope by unseen terrible past events. It’s not just the death of his parents that Bruce is reeling from here, as his faithful sidekick Robin has previously been murdered by the Joker. He might not be your childhood hero anymore, but he is a great character. 1) Most Of The Cast – Various, Suicide Squad The most frustrating thing about the fun if flawed mess that is Suicide Squad is that it really had the potential to be a great superhero (or rather supervillain) movie. While some of the characters are terribly underutilized (like Katana and Killer Croc), half of Task Force X are brilliantly played and are a joy to watch. Jay Hernandez and Jai Courtney do great jobs of bringing their lesser-known villains to life, making them surprisingly tragic and memorably skanky, respectively. Meanwhile, Viola Davis’ Amanda Waller is a fascinating character, as she callously plays with people’s lives to achieve a desired result. Plus, Jared Leto’s Joker, divisive though is, does have flashes of brilliance. The standouts, though, are surely Will Smith as Deadshot and Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, who absolutely nail their characters. It is such a shame the rest of Suicide Squad couldn’t be as assured and well-executed as its two lead characters.