#20. Batman vs. Superman
A powerful space alien who physically imposes American ideals and law on citizens even though he has no official authority and idea we tend to love. But if you think about it, the idea of Superman would be a nightmare if implemented.
This movie’s villain, Lex Luthor, is a forward-thinking individual. And his fears and motivations are totally valid... regardless of his horrifying actions, like the time he peed in a jar and made a senator drink it.
#19. Aquaman
In the real world, there isn’t a race of sea gods to protect the fish from the garbage we constantly throw into their habitat, and even though most of Ocean Master’s motivation is just greed and pride, he’s not wrong about the fact that we are indeed trashing the ocean.
We shouldn’t wait to be stopped by a fictional underwater world, and no, it’s not nice to cast tsunamis or other disasters upon our shores but we shouldn’t be surprised nor bothered if Aquaman and his family throw every last piece of microscopic garbage in the sea back to us.
#18. Die Hard: With a Vengeance
Simon Gruber and his plan to steal the gold reserve is paired with his desire to limit casualties, which makes him not so different from Ocean’s Eleven’s Danny Ocean. And even though we love John McClane, let’s accept that when it comes to these elaborate heists, he is a killjoy.
And even though Hans was a considerably bad person, you can’t blame him for being sore about him, I mean he was his brother, and as Simon said: >“There’s a difference between not liking one’s brother and not caring when some dumb Irish flatfoot drops him out of a window.”
#17. Blade Runner
No list of tragic villains could exist without Batty. Roy was born into servitude and had great strength and combat knowledge, but no wonder he went berzerker on his creator and crushed his head when all that strength and knowledge was combined with the emotional experience of a three-year-old give.
And due to his design, his methods are desperate and violent, but he’s not that wrong in his journey to extend his life. The audience ends up wondering why this noir dystopia decided to give machines any intelligence, because of all other reasons for which he is not wrong either.
#16. X-Men Series
Magneto and Mystique never attempt to compromise with the human world that loathes and fears them and they both usually turn from the side of good depending on which film you are watching.
And it’s understandable that a man who witnessed atrocities himself is going to be hard to convince that a non-violent solution is going to be found by any government that fears mutants. We kinda can’t blame Magneto for throwing a stadium on the president when his kind has been hunted with gigantic robots.
#15. Captain America: Civil War
Picture this: Your whole family was killed because a group of superhumans was fighting a crazy robot that they actually created accidentally. And while there are some strangers with abilities that they could easily use to dominate the world we are there just being bystanders and unable to control these powerful beings.
Zemo’s anger isn’t unjustified even though he clearly isn’t a good guy. There are moments that the rest of the world can’t see, but the audience can, and they see Iron Man or Captain America questioning the morality of what they are doing multiple times. Zemo is just one smart enough civilian (out of the many angry ones) who is willing to fight back.
#14. The Planet of the Apes Series
Centered around the concept of “heroes vs villains”, the majority of recent Planet Of The Apes films highlight some bad apples on both sides of the great monkey war. One of these bad apples is Koba, who in his desire to eradicate humankind, stops at nothing.
It was stated in the movie prequel novel that Koba’s background was really tragic. And that was what led him to his dark ideology, and if we consider the action of some humans, his ideology isn’t completely mistaken. So can we really blame him?
#13. Billy Madison
Perfectly portrayed by Bradley Whitford, Eric is an intolerable person and that can’t be denied. But compared to a mentally disturbed man who fights giant hallucinations in the form of penguins, he would be better at running a company.
Eric’s mental breakdown at the end of the film is expected since the destiny of the Fortune 500 hotel chain comes down to an academic decathlon instead of a legal battle.
#12. Spider-Man: Homecoming
Toomes and his men are put out of their job when his salvage operation is shut down when Tony Stark joined with the government to create the Department of Damage Control. And because of this, Toomes overreacts a little bit.
Building a smart AI bot that decides to piledrive an entire city is unjustifiable just as dealing magic guns to the local thugs or nuking your own henchmen is. So what is left to ask is: who is responsible for more deaths because Tony Stark did build de AI bot in Age of Ultron...
#11. The X-Files
We see in the episode “Musings Of A Cigarette Smoking Man,” that even though Someky is a terrible father and he also was responsible for the JFK and MLK assassinations, he didn’t want to do any of that in the first place. He just wanted to write the great American novel but he ended up following the alien coverup career.
But Cancer Man is also part of an underground Syndicate that tries to keep the body count to a minimum, attempting to stop (or facilitate) an alien invasion without having a big war, Independence Day-style.
#10. Lord Of The Rings
We see in Gollum’s origin flashback how he killed his friend over just a piece of jewelry. Gollum’s current state is basically what Frodo would’ve become if he had held to the ring of power for a little bit longer.
Maybe Smeagol was always a bad person, but the movies try to show us his internal struggle the best they can. Smeagol saves Sam and Frodo’s life a few times, despite of his rage. Maybe he didn’t deserve to die in lava.
#9. Skyfall
It’s very likely that you had one of those bosses that when a project goes sideways, wouldn’t even hesitate to throw you under the bus. But in Raoul’s case, instead of getting a reprimand or suspension, after M disowned him just for diplomatic relations, he got five months of being tortured by the Chinese government.
Maybe you can’t be completely on his side, but at least you can understand where his rage comes from. But maybe, and just maybe he just should use that anger on the cyanide pill’s manufacturer.
#8. The X-Files
Is that bad that the Flukeman likes to float in our wastewater? He didn’t want to be taken from a sewer and then being handcuffed. Actually, he didn’t ask for anything specific.
And he may not be the prettiest thing to look at, and his bite might plant babies in your abdomen. But it’s not like he is looking for victims in the beaches, he just hangs out in a place no one would.
#7. The Jungle Book
Shere Kahn is right to hate any human that stands in front of him. Either if we are talking about the 1967 Disney version, the Sam Neill one, or the live-action adaptation. He’s right to do so because tigers are an endangered species.
And even though Kahn isn’t precisely a good guy and that we don’t know what humans taste like to a tiger, but what would you do if a child whose people hunted and nearly extinguished your kind, comes before you?
#6. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
We learn in the movie that the Silver Surfer had to serve Galactus so his planet wouldn’t get destroyed. So it wasn’t a possibility for him to say “no thanks” when he was asked to be practically its butler by a planet-eating cloud.
Even though that because of his actions billions have died, wouldn’t you do the same if it was your planet that was at risk, even if it is the only way to secure the survival of the human race? Let’s just hope that the Silver Surfer’s people recognize him for giving up his free will and his life to save them.
#5.The Rock
General Hummel is overall just a really loyal boss. It is admirable how he tried to take Alcatraz Island hostage so he could get compensation to the families of the soldiers who fell under his command.
Knowing that a civilian getting hurt would totally betray his purpose, he goes to unimaginable lengths just to prevent this. And this humanity is what ends his motivation and eventually leads to his downfall making him stop his men from killing an entire city.
#4. Avengers: Infinity War
Even though Thanos was introduced into the MCU in Avengers in a post-credit sequence, it was in Guardians of the Galaxy that we got to know him. Thanos is the sincere kind of villain, even if he murdered his daughter, tortured his other one or made a teen superhero dissolve into dust.
We later find out that Thanos is worried that there aren’t enough resources for everyone, so he decides 50 percent of all living things should disappear. Yes, he didn’t want to just rule the galaxy. But we can confirm that Thanos isn’t perfect since he could’ve just created these missing resources with the infinity stones, oh well…
#3. The Matrix
Maybe we were just too mean to our A.I. and they decided to confine us in mind jail. Since we know that it was the Animatrix series who started the warm we can assume that the Matrix-creating Machines are the good guys.
And if we compare it to how violent we were with them,they actually were very merciful when they created the Matrix as an almost peaceful environment. And they even agree to a truce instead of killing us in the end.
#2. Star Wars
Evidence that neither the Sith or the Jedi should consider themselves or be considered one superior to the other one, is the Clone Army, born into slavery and genetically enhanced to obey. No one in the prequels considers what’s wrong with using lots of identical people just for their political conflicts.
They are just in the background getting killed by lightsabers and blaster fire for most of the series. Their screams as their limbs fly through the air are ignored by everyone. But when the order 66 is executed by the Sith and they are brainwashed, it really gets worse…
#1. Black Panther
Killmonger was not wrong, but maybe he didn’t have to go to such extents. It was really understandable how he wanted to use Wakanda’s hidden technology to help the people who were in some unfortunate situations.
But perhaps he didn’t have to throw anyone off of waterfalls. Even so, you could say that Killmonger got what he wanted since Black Panther ends with T’Chala sharing his kingdom with the rest of the world. And Wakanda would’ve probably had stayed hidden if it wasn’t for his attempt to usurp the throne.