Thanos or Magneto? Which one was the best movie villain?

Magneto

Thanos

Magneto has had more screen time to develop his character but Thanos ain't too shabby.

Magneto.

I wouldn't consider these 2 as villains but more of antagonist. But I would say thanos

Thanos easily

Thanos is frightening than Erik, and his motives are more complex and interesting.

Mags

Thanos.

The one who killed 1/2 of the universe

All day. Magneto had a few epic moments. Thanos WAS epic. So Thanos.

Magneto, his ambitions made sense and he felt far more understandable.

Thanos

magneto felt more relatable

thanos' "imma kill half the people instead of doing something more reasonable with god's power" was dumb as hell. It has some context in ecology (controlled culling to prevent deforestation in animals) but for someone who considers it mercy, it doesn't sound as merciful.

magneto's helplessness in the face of the human condition making him an extremist is more relatable and has historical context without becoming too ridiculous because he didn't have the power to change humanity.

Thanos.

If it was Fassbender then Magneto.

Magneto

Magneto.

It would be a stomp if this were Fassbender.

Magneto

Magneto, I can relate more to him.

Both were great but I have to go with Magneto as well.

Thanos is just a big dumb purple gorilla that just follow to Death like a sick and disgusting freak.

Magneto has this

Magneto. Better actor and his plan wasn’t stupid.

this one here. Thanos > Mckellen's Mags, Fassbender's Mags> Thanos.

I can agree that Mags may have been a better villain/(anti-villian/anti-hero), but to be fair, Thanos was mostly comp gen and Brolin was mostly voice. I think..heh

Anyways, Thanos' plan was pretty vague, whereas Fox digs a little deeper in Mags past to shows us purpose/context. IMO

@spikespiegell:

MCU Thanos isn't really a Death follower.

What makes Thanos a good villian? I still don't get it. He's just some confused moron like Gamora said.

Magneto. Thanos was so astonishingly ill-informed & rash I had to glance around the theater to see if anyone was laughing like I was.

Magneto because he had more style even though Thanos was more destructive.

As for character motive, Magneto had a better one but I did like Thanos' determination. Both was enjoyable but Magneto's my answer.

Thanos is more badass, interesting and complex IMO. No matter if it's Fassbender or McKellen Magneto.

Magneto all day.

How is he more interesting and complex?

@killbilly: Complex and interesting cause he considers himself honorable and that's why he can sympathize with heroes to an extent or spare them while in other situations he shows sadistic pleasure from killing, like he did with Loki or tried to with Thor. Even more so he likes to consider himself inevitable savior of the universe. I think that's the real reasons why he travelled from planet to planet killing people and then did the snap, not a honest need to save the universe. He won't admit it though and will consider himself a good guy. That's how it looks in short IMO.

Plus I love how badass he was, especially in IW opening and trinity fight in EG. Also Thanos' death scene where he's so close to succeeding (snap) but suddenly he has to face his failure, accepts it and fades away, is one of my favorite in CBMs.

That doesn't really seem complex or interesting though. It seems more contradictory and inconsistent to hi established character traits than anything else.

That makes him delusional. Not saying that can't be interesting, but they don't really delve into this aspect of his character all that much so I don't really see why I should care.

I just don't think those scenes can compete with scenes like these in terms of badassery:

@killbilly: I wouldn't say it's inconsistent. Thanos considers himself a good guy and that's why he can show mercy and keep his promise. But in fact, he likes to kill and cause harm. He needs a reason to do this, and justify himself. Like when he killed Loki (and clearly enjoyed it) because he was trying to cheat him after pledging loyalty. Or during entire EG final battle when he was angry at Avengers almost undoing his plan (plus very determined to win the battle as he didn't have such an advantage as in IW). I feel like his whole torturing of Nebula and decimating planets fall into that too as he allegedly wanted to make her stronger/save the planets' inhabitants but that was just a justification of his love of slaughter and sadism (despite saying to Cap in EG that it was never personal). His desire to be savior of the universe and overall megalomania is a reason for that too, as I said.

Agree that these things weren't so clearly developed (but heavily suggested IMO) but that's because the movies (especially EG didn't have enough time to show more of this). IW on the other hand was mostly about his relation to Gamora which was honest to an extent IMO (but still lost with his desire to become savior of the universe).

And after all, I'm not saying Magneto is a bad villain. He's better than average when it comes to CBMs (with few scenes like escape and Argentina being very good) but in the end I feel like he's a bit overused and his story lacks a good conclusion (though I haven't seen Dark Phoenix but from what I've heard, it won't change much).

Honestly, I just think you might just be reading into things too much. I think the movies wanted to portray Thanos as a somewhat sympathetic/morally gray character but still wanted those classic villain moments and that it ended up not meshing well onscreen.

Like, his plan makes absolutely no sense to begin with. And I don't think that's an intentional decision but rather the writers simply not thinking things out fully and deciding that most people wouldn't care in the end.

Also, you claim that the movies didn't depict this stuff well because they simply didn't have enough time to do so but there's probably about half an hour of unnecessary humor and quips in the movie. They could have killed two birds with one stone by simply eliminating these scenes thus helping to resolve IW and Endgame's tonal inconsistency AND developing these aspects you claim were intended on the part of the writers.

I mean, I think it's a bit dishonest to say you think his story lacks a good conclusion when you haven't even seen it thought, having seen it myself, I would agree with the assessment.

@killbilly: Maybe indeed I'm reading into things but too much but those things are clearly visable. Agree that the movies have shown more sympathethic side of Thanos in his relation to Gamora. But honestly, even IW portrayed him as mostly evil and sadistic (killing Loki, torturing Nebula). His desire to be savior of the universe and megalomania were seen in IW too (Destiny arrives all the same. And now it's here. Or should I say, I am?).

His plan doesn't make sense indeed but he's mad, and focused on the vision of him becoming 'inevitable' savior of the universe. His madness is a reason why his behavior may seem inconsistent too.

I'd love it if IW/EG gave Thanos more time and development. But honestly many people probably enjoy jokes more (though they weren't that bad in IW/EG, it didn't damage the movie like in case of Ragnarok IMO).

But going to Magneto, doesn't his motives seen weird and inconsistent to you? His mother was killed by a mutant (and humans played only a secondary role in that) and she seemingly was an ordinary human. His wife was a human. Yet Magneto sometimes hates all humans and in Apocalypse, because his wife and daughter got killed by incydent, he engages in making world-ending event in which arguably millions of such innocent people like them die. That's a weird motivation. He needs to be at least as mad as Thanos to justify what he's doing. McKellen Magneto was more consistent with his actions but new movies messed it up.

Josh Brolin's Thanos is extremely overrated.

I'd argue that Magneto got better character writing in the Fassbender era, so that seems like a better comparison.

Mag has a better reason to his actions. So Mags.

Mags not even REMOTELY close.

Whether its Fassbender or Mckellen they're both better roles and characters by a longshot

I would've chosen Thanos if they didn't butcher his character in Endgame

Magneto