2013 has given us some great movies. A lot of them have been filled with exciting characters, all coming together for a terrific finale, suggesting a certain amount of talent on the part of the writers, balancing all of these characters to make the movie work. However, there are always a few characters that never seem to get the limelight they truly deserve and you might leave the cinema, wishing that a handful of characters got the role they could have made wonders with.
4 – SIF – THOR: THE DARK WORLD
Sif is actually a rather important figure in the Thor canon. She was actually quite impressive in Thor, showing off that she was a bad-ass fighter. Even then she wasn’t really given enough screen time, although that time it was understandable, as this was an origin story. The sequel this 2013, Thor: The Dark World, hinted that there might be a romantic angle to their relationship, which Thor’s father, Odin, was trying to encourage. However, while that was an interesting concept, the movie never seemed to fully embrace the idea, probably because before long the Dark Elves had arrived and romance never seemed to have time in the script. Once again, Sif never got the limelight she deserved to have.
In fairness to the actress, Jaimie Alexander does a really good job with the minimal screen-time she is given. The only reason we are aware of this potential love story between the two characters is through some complex stares from Sif. She is clearly infatuated with Thor, but understands that his heart belongs elsewhere. However, she doesn’t really think that Jane Foster’s place in his heart will go anywhere, as she is human and will die of old age before long. However, then she turns around a corner and finds this woman in Asgard. All of those emotions are wrapped in one look. And on top of that, she has to protect Jane Foster for the man she truly loves. That is some deep stuff that should have got a bigger mention in the movie and it is only thanks to some terrific under-acting from Sif that we even realised that those cards were on the table.
3 – VIPER – THE WOLVERINE
I am going to get a lot of stick here, because most people really didn’t like Viper in ‘The Wolverine’. She was a symbol of the camp, superhero movies that James Mangold was trying to move the character away from. She felt out of place in the entire movie and it seems mad that I am asking for more of her.
Personally, I was really interested in her character. She had some interesting powers that were only touched upon, before she was harshly killed off. There were far too many characters in ‘The Wolverine’, and personally Viper was one of the only ones worth exploring, in my book. While many people thought her being out of place was odd, I thought it made her mysterious and I wanted to learn more about this character. It was frustrating, because the movie keeps her in the shadows for so long and I was expecting a big reveal and background story. But it turns out she is just an associate of the Silver Samurai (a much worse villain), and then she is pushed to the side of the action.
Well, at least she gets a fight and probably has more screen-time than anyone else on this list (maybe with the exception of the next category), but the problem is that she doesn’t do anything worthwhile, when she is on the screen. She looks intimidating, says some camp super-villain stuff and then gets a late-act fight scene. She never gets much character development, which is a shame, because she comes across as a knock-off Mystique.
2 – THE FOUR HORSEMEN – NOW YOU SEE ME
I touched upon this in my review of ‘Now You See Me’, but I had to include them, because I felt that more of the Horsemen would have improved the movie significantly. Maybe part of my disappointment for the lack of the group was the fact that I thought the movie would be all about them. When we got down to watching it, we followed the detective in charge of following them. It was a fairly nice route to take the film and it make it less predictable. I understand that the film would have lost a lot of its charm, if we were allowed to peek behind the scenes and see what the Horsemen were doing. Out of every entry on this list, this is the one I am inclined to agree with.
But that doesn’t change the fact that the best part about this movie was the lightning-fast dialogue being bounced around the group during their banter. We came expecting awesome magic tricks, that we definitely received, but the unexpected pleasure was the spark between these four characters. Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher and Dave Franco are all fantastic actors, that aren’t quite A-Listers just yet, so it is great to see them given the perfect script to show off their talents.
1 – EVERYONE IN WORLD WAR Z
I tried to narrow it down to one character in this movie, but truthfully, there were far too many characters here that should have had a bigger part.
The obvious ones are James Badge Dale and Matthew Fox as the soldiers in charge of fighting in the front line of the invasion. We are given some bad-ass characters to follow and then they are totally removed from the script. At least James Badge Dale was allowed a heroic last stand; Matthew Fox kind of just disappeared. In the same scene, David Morse was introduced and forgotten, despite seeming like the character who knew more about what was going on than anyone else. When he is introduced, you assume he was going to be the turning point in the film. But no… they left him to get eaten alive, trapped in a jail cell, when the zombies arrived.
Then there were the people on the boat. Gerry Lane’s family were pretty much dropped as soon as the action starts, when we could have been given an interesting insight to these people, not allowed asylum if their husband couldn’t prove himself useful. Then there was Gerry’s friend, forced to give out that command. What was his story? That was never embellished. Focusing on those aspects of the story would have switched the pace up well and improved the film. But no, this was Brad Pitt’s show and he was pretty much the lone star. Glory thief.
Oracle of Film 
Agreed on three of your four selections.
The line exception being the one you expected. I hate Viper, as a character and, more importantly, an actor. That actor was awful, just plain awful and every time she was on screen, she almost killed the movie.
I will also add that I think Terrence Howard and Viola Davis’ characters in Prisoners needed way more screen time.
I would blame the director more than the actress. Svetlana was quite impressive in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. She was simply asked to play it ‘camp and superhero-y’ by Mangold and it came across as rushed when she had so little screen-time.
That may be true. Haven’t seen her in anything else. I’m willing to accept she could be plenty good in other things.
Still, I think there is blame to be shared. The character is written poorly, directed poorly and, indeed, acted poorly.
Hayden Christiansen is great in Shattered Glass (2003) and Life as House (2001), which means he is a talented actor. But he was nonetheless awful in the Star Wars films. Edward James Olmos is an excellent character actor, who delivered some masterpiece work in Battlestar Galactica and other television shows, not to mention the occasional film, but his turn in 2 Guns (2013) isn’t good. All which is to say that Svetlana might be a good actor in other productions, but that doesn’t mean she does well in everything. As I said in my review of said film, she is supposed to capture two traits in The Wolverine: sexy and scary. I don’t think she hits either. She’s just dull.
I haven’t seen Wolverine, but I agree with all of the rest of these! Especially Sif! It’s like, she seems to be important, but she never gets more than like five minutes of screen time…