20% Of MCU Fans Think This Was The Worst Phase 3 Villain - Do We Agree?
(Welcome to Survey Says, a feature where we conduct a movie-related survey for a random group of people and explain why they're completely right, completely wrong, or somewhere in-between.)
By the time Marvel Studios kicked off Phase 3 of the company's grand plan with 2016's "Captain America: Civil War," the Marvel Cinematic Universe had been established as a safe harbor for A-list actors to drop by, don a ridiculous villain costume, chew some scenery, and collect a hefty paycheck. But some instances of that scenery chewing ended up being more entertaining than others, and a recent poll we conducted showcased a surprising result when it comes to the fans' choice for the worst villain of the MCU's Phase 3.
We Crunched the Numbers
Using SurveyMonkey, we asked almost 600 random people (590, to be exact) to identify the absolute worst Phase 3 villain. Here are their answers (keeping in mind that this isn't a perfect system, so there were some Phase 3 villains they could not choose):
Mysterio 20.34%
Dormammu 17.63%
Ego 16.44%
The Grandmaster 14.75%
The Vulture 14.24%
Surtur 10.34%
Hela 6.27%
The Voters Have Spoken...
Cate Blanchett's Hela from "Thor: Ragnarok" pulled in just over 6% of the vote, meaning viewers liked her portrayal the best among these choices. That's not surprising – even though that character is slightly lacking, Blanchett made a meal out of it (and rocks arguably the best fit in the entire MCU in the process). What is surprising is Hela's co-star, the fire demon Surtur, ended up having a relatively high approval rating among the voters, despite a small amount of screen time.
Michael Keaton's Vulture and Jeff Goldblum's The Grandmaster were neck and neck in the race to the middle of the pack, while Kurt Russell's Big Zaddy Energy as Ego in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" and Benedict Cumberbatch's performance-captured portrayal of Dormammu in "Doctor Strange" launched them into the upper echelon of this poll.
...And I'm Sorry, But They Are Straight Up Wrong
I regret to inform you that the voters made the inexplicable (and frankly inexcusable) choice to rank Jake Gyllenhaal's Mysterio as the worst MCU Phase 3 villain.
You're seriously going to try to tell me that Jake Gyllenhaal's Mysterio is a worse villain than Surtur? I mean, I know the demon destroyed Asgard, but it was already basically empty! When I look at the results of this poll, my reaction takes the form of the immortal words of "Home Alone" protagonist Kevin McCallister: I don't think so.
Gyllenhaal's Quentin Beck spends a considerable portion of "Spider-Man: Far From Home" posing as a hero and forming what appears to be a convincing and genuine friendship with Tom Holland's Peter Parker ... which makes his eventually heel turn so much more delicious than it would have been if the audience knew he was the baddie from the beginning. Gyllenhaal, who has spent the past several years playing devastated, tortured, broken, deranged individuals, finally gets to have his superhero fun (he was once rumored to take over as Spider-Man for Tobey Maguire many years ago) and end up playing the villain in the same movie. And his performance is wonderful: he's like an arrogant, smarmy director, barking orders at his minions and running tech checks on his hologram technology to make sure his evil plan goes off without a hitch. When was the last time you saw a villain actually mixing it up with his underlings instead of just delegating all of the hard work? Mysterio rules. Justice for Mysterio.