Weekly Analysis #2

It's no secret this summer's list of blockbusters has been a lackluster collection of underachievers. But who's to blame for this debacle? I point a stern finger at the weak collection of villains. A good villain in a film should make the audience afraid of him or wanting him to die or be defeated at all costs. Some good example of villains from summer blockbusters would be: Darth Vader from Star Wars, Buffalo Bill from The Silence of the Lambs, and The Joker from The Dark Knight.
A prime example would be the villain Nero from the movie Star Trek, sure it was a hit, but it did under perform. He was loud, and maybe a tad intimidating - but his anger only made him volatile, not really frightening. His rage was easy to deter, and even easier to circumvent - once you brought a level headed hero into play (which, granted, took some time). He was all bark and not enough personal bite. Sure, he blew up Vulcan, but we didn't really see the destruction. It was just reckless and wild - once again, something that seems easy to deter with a cooler head.
Terminator Salvation was another example; the villains of the movie were the super computer Skynet and the terminators. These villains have been used for three films already, and they were intimidating to start with, but they have lost their bite. They did not make a logical decision throughout the movie and only had one terminator fight with the main character while he was in an entire factory of the machines.
Perhaps there will be a change in this trend before the summer is out. The prospects don’t look promising though. The previews of the movie District 9 seem to have humanity as the villain and the G. I. Joe movie’s villains appear to be something out of a toy commercial. (Granted it is based on toys) Hopefully things will change before the end of this summer!