My Kingdom for a Good Villain!

Seen I, Frankenstein the other day. Not a bad movie, far from it. It was a little weird seeing Aaron Eckhart play an action movie hero, though a little more complex than most, but Bill Nighy's performance is outstanding, as ever.

Actually, the only bone I have to pick is with the screenwriters since they committed an all too common error.

They take a villain, someone who is hundreds of years old who has carefully planned for centuries, taking into account every contingency but alas, the villains nefarious plan is laid to waste by a few well placed punches from our hero, in this case Aaron Echhart.

Come on, people. This happened in Transformers, in Starwars and in more movies and books I would like to count. The greatest villains' plans thwarted by dim witted heroes who have taken a few boxing lessons.

My kingdom for a good villain with a good plan who would not be pulled down by a right jab and left uppercut.


I fact, the only movie I remember where a really good villain was not thwarted by the heroes punches was the Watchmen.  

The heroes arrive at the villain Ozymandias stronghold but he tells them his evil plan was put into action half an hour ago and was not to be thwarted by a fist fight. Which he won, by the way.

THIS is my kind of villain, the kind I put into my books, the only kind that makes sense.