Will Thanos in The Avengers: Infinity War and the untitled Avengers 4 be another forgettable villain?
Noted comic book writer Mark Millar thinks so.
Following the disappointment of Justice League, Mark Millar took to Twitter to point out:
I feel we’re done with CGI villains. Think about the ones we remember: Loki, Hela, Hackman’s Luthor, Ledger and Nicholson’s Joker. We instinctively switch off in a third act now because the hero is fighting a digital drawing.
Millar, who is known for penning comics such as Marvel’s Civil War, Kick-Ass, Old Man Logan and lots more included four images with Steppenwolf from the Justice League movie, Doomsday from Batman vs. Superman, Ultron from Avengers 2, and Thanos from Avengers: Infinity War.
I feel we’re done with CGI villains. Think about the ones we remember: Loki, Hela, Hackman’s Luthor, Ledger and Nicholson’s Joker. We instinctively switch off in a third act now because the hero is fighting a digital drawing. pic.twitter.com/V9lqvCSy5f
— Mark Millar (@mrmarkmillar) December 7, 2017
Fans have already responded both agreeing and disagreeing with Mark Millar.
My own response to Millar’s thoughts is that it’s not about the characters being CGI, but about the characters being poorly written.
I would also point out that Hela in Thor: Ragnarok is hardly a villain to remember and goes down with basically all of the Marvel movie villains as being forgettable as well.
Steppenwolf wasn’t a great villain, and while true due partially to the CGI, Steppenwolf was never fully developed and wasn’t even included in a previous DCEU movie. WB only included Steppenwolf in a deleted scene, which was shortly released online following Batman vs. Superman‘s theatrical release.
Speaking of Doomsday, the character’s CGI wasn’t good as well, but the character was also poorly written and appeared on of nowhere in the movie’s third act and was nothing like its comic book counterpart–more bad writing (Eisenberg’s Luthor is also forgettable).
Ultron was another case of case bad writing, IMO, and obviously we have yet to see what the Russo’s do with Josh Brolin’s Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War.
Counters to Mark Millar’s argument, as many fans have replied with, would be Andy Serkis’ performances as Gollum in the Lord of the Rings and the Apes movies. Serkis also stars as Supreme Leader Snook in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which looks promising.
