Film Feature: The Marvel Comics Movie Awards

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Best Performance as a Villain: Ian McKellen as Magneto

Magneto Photo credit: Marvel Movies

Why?: Because even actors as compelling as Alfred Molina or Tim Roth simply can’t compete with a Royal Shakespeare Company-trained Gandalf. Putting EVERYTHING that occurred in “X-Men: Last Stand” aside (more on that later), Ian McKellen created one of the most engaging and chilling movie villains ever with his performance as Magneto. It’s the result of a flawless actor being given a beyond-complex character to play. Magneto is a fantastic villain because, let’s be honest, he kind of has a point. This is a man who has had to watch as the world tried to exterminate him on two separate occasions – once for being a Jew, once for being a mutant – so the fact that he has absolutely no sympathy or compassion for the human race makes a lot of sense. You understand why Magneto has henchmen because he’s an amazing leader and he has – what he sees as – a right and noble cause. And that sequence in “X2” where he breaks out of his plastic prison by sucking the metal out of a guard’s blood? 100% bad ass. And there’s simply no other Marvel movie villain who can compete.

Runners-Up: Alfred Molina as Doc Ock in “Spider-Man 2” (GREAT, but his motivations are just a bit too vague); Stephen Dorff as Deacon Frost in “Blade” (big, scenery-chewing fun); Liev Schreiber in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”

Worst Performance as a Villain: John Travolta as Howard Saint in “The Punisher”

Why?: Because Travolta can do so, SO much better. Yes, there have been some other horrendously bad bad-guy performances in other Marvel movies, but none of them made us as sad as Travolta slumming it in a movie as lame as Jonathan Hensleigh’s “The Punisher”. The man almost literally sleepwalks through his entire performance and, the few times he does open his eyes, it’s just to sneer and say crappy lines of dialogue. Travolta can be a fantastic actor when he wants to and he knows what it takes to make a cool, engaging bad guy (his performance in “The Taking of Pelham 1, 2, 3” is extremely underrated). But, in “The Punisher”, he’s so drab and lifeless, it’s shocking. If you’re going to fail as a movie bad guy, at least fail big - fail enormous bat-s*** crazy big like Colin Farrell in “Daredevil” or Wes Bentley in “Ghost Rider”. But if you’re going to be as boring as Travolta was in “The Punisher”, why even bother cashing the paycheck?

Runners-Up: Julian McMahon as Doctor Doom in “Fantastic Four”; Dominic Purcell as Dracula in “Blade: Trinity”; Dominic West as Jigsaw in “Punisher: War Zone”; Josh Lucas in “Hulk”

Best Performance as a Hero: Robert Downey Jr. as “Iron Man”

Iron Man
Photo credit: Marvel Movies

Why?: Because NO ONE really went to see “Iron Man” to see the mechanical suit flying around. It was a nice touch, but, be honest, everyone in the world went to see “Iron Man” simply because of how jaw-droppingly charismatic Robert Downey Jr. was in the first previews. Downey KILLED as Tony Stark, and his performance elevates the entire movie. We hate to admit it, but there are a lot of dull stretches and plot holes in “Iron Man”, but you can barely tell because RDJ does such a Herculean job of holding the film on his oh-so watchable shoulders.

Runners-Up: Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man (such good angst); Hugh Jackman as Wolverine (because who the heck had heard of Hugh Jackman before he took that role and made it into his own?)

Best Costume: Spider-Man

Why?: Because it was a hard thing to pull off. Taking a costume that iconic and that complex and making it work on the big screen - without making it come across like a dancer’s leotard - couldn’t have been easy. Sure, they had to keep cheating to find ways to show us Tobey Maguire’s face – there are limits to how expressive the mask can be – but, on a whole, Sam Raimi’s design team really pulled it off.

Runners-Up: Iron Man (the suit looks cool, but it’s more FX than costume); Thor (Kenneth Branagh did an amazing job making a ridiculous-looking costume look fairly kick-ass)

Worst Costume: Green Goblin in “Spider-Man”

Why?: Um… maybe because they used up all of their costuming genius making Spidey look awesome? Who knows, but whoever decided that they should reimagine Spider-Man’s most iconic villain as a low-rent Power Ranger knock-off should be bitch-slapped by Tim Gunn ASAP.

Runners-Up: All of the X-Men in “X1” (those black suits already look crazy dated); Daredevil (red leather is rough to pull off)