Let me start with what makes a boring villain.

Not taking themselves seriously.
I am talking about Ultron, the titular character of Avengers 2.


The day your villain feels like he has to make concessions for the purpose of driving the plot is the day he becomes a failure. He should drive the plot, and not the other way around. When watching the film, you can see that Ultron clearly makes snarky lines and makes comedic mistakes. He never thinks of the Avengers as a serious threat and he lost. There are many plot holes in the film that could fill a Gargantuan blackhole. He doesn’t completely destroy the JARVIS AI implanted within him, then he kidnaps Black Widow and keeps her imprisoned, for no reason at all, then he tries to rise a city block just to destroy humanity, when he could have implemented a ton of doomsday plans simultaneously, such as nuking every place at once, then taking out all the satellites, then maybe crashing a piece of rock. He fails to guard the key lifting the city and when he encounters the Avengers, this is what he says:


“This is what I wanted, all of you, against all of me”. No sane villain will be willing to take a team of heroes head on. Also, which AI would not store a copy of itself in the internet? So many questions..

Only if the Villain takes his own principles than anyone else’s will he be successful. If he concedes to the hero’s principles at the end or acknowledges the hero to be equal to him, then he already lost.

Yes, that includes the Bond villains of late. Especially Blofeld, who decided to take Bond on a merry go ride around Villains Incorporated before killing him.

Not presenting themselves as a threat to the hero.
If your villain cannot come remotely close to breaking the hero, physically, mentally or spiritually(mentally meaning winning in a battle of wits and spiritually meaning winning in a battle of beliefs), then it is a matter of time before he loses. Case in point: Captain Phasma, The Force Awakens.


Does she fight against any of the heroes of the film? No. Does she make any master plans to scope out the rebels? No. Let’s be frank. The only reasons she is there are to sell Disney toys, serve as a cool looking bodyguard and give away the base when Han Solo comes with Chewbacca. That’s it. She wasn’t even a villain as they said she would. Hell, even FN-2199 was a better villain than she was. May he rest in peace.


Not being able to scare the audience.
If the villain in question is not able to scare the audience into believing that he poses a real threat, in one way or another, then he is not a villain, but a Butt-Monkey who is destined to lose. He may have evil intentions to destroy the world, but until he expresses them in one way or another, he is destined to lose.


This guy here appeared in one of the famous MCU movies of all time: Guardians of the Galaxy. But can you remember his name?

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It is Ronan the Accuser. I had to search google for guardians of the galaxy villain to get his name. That’s how insignificant he is. Sure, he was able to beat Drax the Destroyer in a hand to hand fight, but he was never scary. He wanted to destroy the world, but got distracted by a Chris Pratt Beatbox. Typical.

If any villain is able to scare the audience, be able to beat the hero and be serious at the same time, he is an interesting villain. And most importantly, he should be able to be the center of attention every time he/she is on screen.

Take any famous villain onscreen and you can see that he will satisfy the above criteria.

Darth Vader in Star Wars

What made him interesting was his ability to control The Force, a mysterious unknown force. He was menacing, unforgiving and was a definite force to be reckoned with. And looking at this can choke your breath.

Bane in The Dark Knight Rises

He was able to inspire more fear in others than Comic Bane ever could. He is not as physically built as Comic book bane, but he doesn’t need that. He showed what it took to break the Bat. And not just physically. But also mentally and spiritually. Batman was almost willing to die after failing to beat Bane. That shows how much powerful he was.

Agent Smith

One of the best impressions of an AI.

Scarecrow

Obadiah Stane

Though not more intimidating, he was the perfect rival for Iron Man.

Hans Gruber

No words needed.

Hans Landa

Possibly the only villain to make a Nazi look badass


Read more on https://stevebuzz..com/2020/04/what-makes-interesting-villain.html?m=1

Wen d xter is well written n fine too

A villain that is convinced from within that he is doing the right thing.