Fame comes at a cost. No, this isn't a list of former A-list celebrities past their prime, but it's interesting to examine how excessive fervor from fans can cause movie characters to lose its luster as well. This is a list of characters that started out cool before they were effectively ruined by their insane level of popularity.
5. Batman
The mythos and motifs refined by this comic book icon over the course of his 70+ year history are so unassailable, they almost warrant the cringeworthy degree of ball-washing that regrettably come along with them — almost. The fact of the matter is, it is implausible to expect the Caped Crusader to survive the onslaught of memes, video games, movies and dad obsessions that has been burdened upon him and still retain the gothic charm that made him a hit in the first place. To be clear, this isn’t a “Batman on lunchboxes? Lame!” beef — plenty of my favorite heroes are both culturally ubiquitous and deserving of such distinctions (Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, James Bond). My gripe has to do with creators letting fanservice alter characters in a way that impedes their growth. Sans the masterful collaborations of Bruce, Tim, and Conroy, the brooding, infallible smartest guy in the room analogue for what it means to be American dialed up to 11 routine has plagued the character since the mid ‘90s. It’s everyone’s favorite version of the Dark Knight even though it's, in my opinion, the least interesting. Sorry, martial arts touting detective trumps moppy, i’m just an average guy but I can still kick the living shit out of alien god Superman.
4.Captain Jack Sparrow
Capn’ Jack suffers from the same illness so many tertiary characters suffer from — the infamous Cooler-Than-The-Protagonist-itis. While it’s true characters like Legolas and Wolverine (more on him later) are more times than not more compelling than the straight men carrying their properties, those two facts are dependent on each other. Sparrow worked so brilliantly in Curse of the Black Pearl because he was free of narrative responsibilities, which meant he could flaunt his eccentric badassery with abandon. You didn’t care that he didn’t get much of an arc. In fact, all the better — arcs are for squares. He’s so good in the first entry of the Pirates saga (blech), if you were like me, you might have found yourself thinking “Screw this Will Turner noise, just make these movies about Jack!” Then they did...and they were nigh unwatchable.
3. Wolverine
If you go back and reread Chris Clermont’s initial run on X-Men , you might be surprised at how well Wolverine works as a character. He’s visually engaging, he’s got neat powers, he’s funny and, most importantly, he’s used sparingly. Whether you're talking about the recent comics or the films (excluding Logan , which is a deconstruction of how he is received by fans), I have never really cared about Wolverine and his plight to never die whilst trying to find out where he came from. Hey Logan, you don’t wanna know, the whole thing is actually kinda dull and convoluted. Wolverine works best as a force of nature. I mean, would you pay to see a prequel explaining the origin of — you know what, nevermind.
2. Venom
Venom is fucking lame and you know it.
1. Darth Vader
I love Vader as a concept, as a design, as a villain, but by god, making the bonafide enforcer of the original trilogy the crux by which the franchise hangs has to be one of the biggest missteps in cinema history. This isn’t even a prequel bashing — even the good additions to the Star Wars canon maintain this unearned obsession with this one jedi in a sea of other jedis that turned to the dark side before and after him. I get it, black leather and capes are cool, but immaculate conception? There is no reason the galaxy should revere Vader the way they do based on his characterization in the original films. Those movies are literally him taking orders from a bunch of limey nerds. Sure, he chokes one out every once and awhile, but does “Your ancient religion can suck it” scream chosen-one to you?
