How NOT To Write a Villain

i think megamind put it best when he said what separates villains from super villains is presentation in storytelling i think this is what separates a great villain from a not so great one some of the greatest villains in cinematic history have memorable and creative introductions i recently watched the third installment in the kingsman series and how the movie handled the antagonist genuinely frustrated me i honestly don't intend on this becoming a critical video essay channel and i'm not going to criticize this film in general so instead i'll try to explain what i think was so wrong about this introduction and compare it to some of the greatest villain introductions of all time to hopefully come to an understanding of the do's and don'ts of riding a powerful villain the bad guy in the king's man has very few scenes throughout the movie the first glimpse we get of him has him staring into a fireplace in the shadows while the slightly less bad guys wait for him to turn around i honestly don't have a problem with this because even though we can't see his face the rest of the room are in the same position my problem begins when he turns around the camera slowly moves towards him finally we're going to see who he is the movie can finally get going he's turning around and the camera moves behind him we feel betrayed because now that the room can see him we are alone in not seeing his face the rest of the scene follows this pattern most shots are positioned behind him and the ones that aren't have him in the dark so my problem isn't necessarily the choice to hide his identity i understand that this creates suspense it's just the cheesy way they have chosen to achieve it there are a few more scenes like this before the climax of the movie which reveals his identity all these scenes use camera placement as tricks to hide who he is and that's what they are tricks it's not clever or even necessarily well motivated on june 23 2003 wwe wrestler kane was unmasked for the first time tension builds as he hesitates but eventually kane turns away from the camera takes off his mask and turns around revealing his face gasps are heard from the audience and commentators and it's honestly an extremely exciting moment from his debut in 97 until this kane's face was concealed by his mask now imagine if instead of a mask every time kane was about to turn around there was a cut to a different camera which he wasn't facing imagine how frustrating that would be we as the viewer at home would feel cheated because everyone else in the arena would know what he looked like well that's essentially what happens in the king's man there is a scene where the oh so mysterious villain is fencing with somebody he's got his fencing helmet on which is fair enough quite a creative way to conceal somebody's face but then he takes it off and it cuts to a shot from behind him again as i've said before on this channel we the audience are the camera so the choice to constantly move us so we can't see someone's face feels unmotivated involuntary and forest camera movement and placement can be used effectively and most importantly creatively i've mentioned how it's our alignment with the characters that makes us feel connected to what we are watching look at this scene from the opening of avengers infinity war ironically in a video essay about villains this example is not about thanos it's about what happens in the moments before his reveal the movie begins with a wide shot of the asgardian ship the first shot we get from inside the ship is from ground level the asgardians are injured and defeated as they lie on the floor because of the camera placement our perspective is the same as those who have been defeated infinity war is a movie about our heroes losing and about evil prevailing over good the audience is on the side of good so therefore we share the defeat so the camera placement can play a part in the introduction of a villain it just needs to align with the theme of the movie quick word about thanos to have your villain kill a previous villain without breaking a sweat is an excellent way of emphasizing how serious a threat he is to the avengers sometimes cinematography can be used to conceal someone's identity in the departed we are introduced to frank casello through various scenes which include him as a shadowed figure there's something so much more credible about using lighting to create a silhouette of a mysterious figure then quite literally moving the camera so we can't see who the person is you may say that the king's man does use lighting to conceal the villain's identity so what's the difference what interests me is the motivation behind choosing to do it one of the main themes of the departed is betrayal pretty much every character experiences betrayal at some point the audience and every character in this movie are vulnerable to this betrayal so therefore when a betrayal happens it fits in with the theme of the movie i genuinely can't see any other motivation for the king's man to commit this betrayal other than shock factor of course we very quickly see what frank costello looks like but that sense of mystery has been established effectively betrayals of the audience can work in the opposite way they can work to fool us into thinking somebody is evil for example in harry potter the first shot we get of snape antagonizes him immediately harry glances over to snape and they lock eyes the camera draws in closer to snape and ominous music builds we cut back to harry who gets a pain from his scar this is misleading because obviously in the deathly hallows we discover who snape truly is he is not the awful man that he was antagonized to be his whole life a bit of a weirdo yeah but not evil so if this was misleading why is it okay why is the story allowed to trick us like this i think it's because our protagonist harry is misled too in fact only dumbledore truly knows that snape is trustworthy if this scene played out with a cut to snape with the same camera movement and music and harry wasn't even looking in his direction then yes we would have a right to feel cheated we would be alone in thinking snape was evil and it would feel cheap but it's our alignment with harry as the protagonist that makes this acceptable it's also worth mentioning that the reason harry gets a pain in his scar is that he's quite literally facing voldemort as i said earlier the slightly less bad guys in these kingsman scenes know exactly what the villain looks like it's like the opposite of germanic irony dramatic irony is when the audience knows more than the people they are watching for example we know that heisenberg is walter and breaking bad as we watch hank destroy himself to try find him this is fun it makes us feel special a huge part of the fun of spider-man is us knowing that it's peter parker it forms a connection between us and those in the know the same goes for bruce wayne and batman the reason i bring up dramatic irony is that it simply must never happen the other way around we must never be the only ones in the dark about who they are so what about when we are in the dark how bbc's sherlock handles moriarty in season 1 is a decent example of how to build a villain's presence before they ever appear on screen sherlock fights the baddies in the first two episodes and just about comes out on top but they are all revealed to be under the thumb of one person moriarty they fear this person more than anyone else so when sherlock and moriarty finally clash heads we get the sense that they have both truly met their match the same could be said for the joker in the dark knight after watching the batman a couple weeks ago i thought i'd go back and watch the nolan dark knight trilogy the introduction of the joker and the dark knight in general has been covered to death by the video essay community so i want to use just one word to explain why villains like these have such great introductions and that word is anticipation to have your audience anticipate your villain's presence is such a powerful tool in storytelling not only does it make the eventual reveal more impactful but it also has an effect on the entire film if your audience anticipates the presence of a villain then that presence will be felt in every other scene that they are not in the joker represents chaos and that chaos can be felt until the moment the credits roll the king's man attempts to build this anticipation but to be honest my anticipation never grew further than a slight feeling of curiosity so by the time we had the eventual reveal it felt flat spoiler alert but it turns out the bad guy was this guy who was in a bunch of scenes throughout the movie this is now even more comparable to moriarty's reveal moriarty also appeared while hiding in plain sight i think what worked about this twist was that his initial scene was far more memorable than those in the king's man when he reveals himself the reaction is something like oh that guy whereas in the king's man it's more like who to be honest by this point i just didn't care enough i felt so betrayed as an audience member that when the moment finally came my only emotion was relief there was no kaiser soze moment it was more of a oh okay i think this is perhaps partially down to the fact that this movie is so incredibly self-indulgent it thinks it's part of some epic franchise the truth is is that it's just not movies like infinity war the dark knight and even wrestling have the benefit of years and years of build up that the anticipation kind of looks after itself if you've seen the king's man i'd love to hear your thoughts maybe even tell me why i'm wrong i'd love to be convinced and lastly i would love to give a quick shout out to my brand new patreon page i currently struggle to find the time to fully devote myself to making these essays but one day this channel might become financially viable enough for me to do it full time so any support would be massively massively appreciated you

Channel: MovieSketch

Views: 462,040

Keywords: The Batman, The Joker, Heath Ledger, Villain, how to introduce a villain, Snape death, Thanos introduction, Loki death, Megamind presentation, Alan Rickman, The King's Man, kingsman, ralph fiennes, Voldemort, bruce Wayne, ebony maw, the departed villain, king's man villain, Peter Parker, sherlock, moriarty, Benedict Cumberbatch, heath ledger rises, joker Barry Keoghan, Harry Potter meets Snape, Voldemort meets Harry Potter, Robert Pattinson, Zoe Kravitz, the batman scenes

Id: S_4WujMQd7A

Length: 10min 48sec (648 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 12 2022