Most Disappointing Character Designs

[Watching Return of the King]

“Oh my gosh, I can’t wait to see Shelob, she’s gonna be so cool!

She has horns and a neck and a really big butt (which Tolkien went into an odd amount of detail about) and other cool things because she’s a fantasy creature.  I can’t wait to see what creative and cool design the use for her and…

...

 …

wtf that just looks like a normal spider.”

Sometimes adaptations like to change the designs of characters.  Often this is good and can result in a creative and pleasing new look for the character.  Many times, however, it’s disappointing to those of us who had expectations of what our favorite heroes or villains look like.  These designs can be grotesque, silly or simply bland.  For this list, I’m mostly doing adaptations of specific characters, even if it is tempting to take the opportunity to complain about what Underworld tried to pass off as werewolves.  I'm not going to not the actor playing the role unless I feel that bad casting was a contributing factor.

 

24. The Wampa

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back Special Edition (1997)

What made the Wampa’s cave an effectively suspenseful scene was that the audience did not know where the creature was in relation to Luke.  Lucas, having apparently forgotten what he learned in Common Sense Filmmaking 101, decided to show the Wampa milling around at the other end of the cave so we can see what a “horrible” creature it was (it was eating).  The “horrible creature” looked like a giant, bipedal Bichon Frise.

23. Scarecrow 
Batman Begins (2005)

I like the mask, but I have a problem with the rest of the costume (or lack thereof).  The simple two-piece suit does not match the mask at all.  Scarecrow could have worn a brown duster and a flannel shirt, which would have fit the character and Nolan’s down-to-earth visual style.  There is a short time where we see him in a sort of loose straightjacket look, but we don’t even get a good look at him like that.  He also could have used a better costume in The Dark Knight since he had time to make one, but he’s back in a two-piece. 

This promotional photo makes him look like he's popped himself.

22. Adrian Veidt
Matthew Goode, Watchmen (2009)

The intention of this costume design was to mock the infamous Batnipple Suit in Batman & Robin.  This is odd because they made Silk Spectre II’s costume more practical even though that costume was supposed to make fun of the impracticality of superheroine costumes.  The awkwardly miscast Matthew Goode doesn’t help, either.  I would have cast Sean Bean, Aaron Eckhart or Nicolaj Coster-Waldau. 

21. Catwoman 
Dark Knight Rises (2012)

In contrast to Michelle Pfeiffer’s memorable costume in Batman Returns, this bland suit looks like a tasteful version of a “sexy cat” Halloween costume favored by girls who have no imagination.  The serrated high heel is pretty cool, though.

 20. Beast

X-Men: First Class (2011)

They got it right in X3 with a full human face, and so did Avatar with the design of the Na’vi.  Those were both good non-furry cat anthro designs.  But people, unless you’re going full furry, don’t do the cat mouth.  It just looks silly.  For the record, I prefer Beast with a human face, as opposed to looking like that mimbo from Starfox Assault.

19. Scarecrow

Henry Polic II, Batman the Animated Series, "Nothing to Fear" (1992)

 Scarecrow's debut in this excellent show was a bit disappointing considering how dark the show was.  The episode was great, of course, but this unintimidating design is odd for a character whose entire point to be scary.  I liked this design as a small child because it actually looks kinda cute.  Fortunately, he got better and better.

 18. Cobra Commander 
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009)

It has some sort of nostalgic 90’s GI Joe feel to it but it looks like a spider’s butt.  Cobra Commander’s costume was great-looking.  Apparently they did away with the hood because it reminded people of the Klan.  It’s too bad there wasn’t an equally iconicthing he could wear.  At least Retaliation fixed this design.

 17. Snake Eyes

GI Joe: Rise of COBRA (2009)

Hey, he looks pretty faithful to the cartoon…until you take a closer look at him and realize that his mask has facial features on it.  That’s kinda weird.  His whole suit has muscle tone molded onto it and seems to be made out of an impractically stiff material.  At least his design in Retaliation looked good.

16. Hawkeye 
Avengers (2012)

Hawkeye has a memorable costume that’s purple and blue (my favorite colors).  This bland getup makes him look like the cheapest leatherdaddy.

 15. The Joker

The Batman (2004-8)

The Joker + An Orangatan.  This show had a thing for needlessly odd character designs.  I was tempted to add The Joker from The New Adventures of Batman, but that was more of an art style flaw than a character design flaw. 

 14. The Wicked Witch of the West

Mila Kunis, Oz The Great and Powerful (2013)

Sam Raimi could have used a design similar to the original, which would have matched his style.  Instead he slavishly followed the design of the 1939 classic.  It doesn’t help that Mila Kunis is way too cute, and the prosthetics protrude abruptly from her soft features in a way that’s incongruous.  It also features a makeup trope I hate: adding pointy eyebrows to demonic characters to make them look more “evil.”  To makeup artists everywhere, that doesn’t work.  Stop doing that.

 13. The Turtles

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)

Everyone has already commented on this off-putting design.  At least they get a point for actually making the Turtles look different from one another.

 12. Grown Spike

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, “Secret of my Excess” (2011)

The show led me to believe that grown dragons look like this.  It’s a great design, and I would love Spike to have looked like that because I like him.  Also, I hate this episode, so I don’t accept it as canon anyways.  I’d also like to make a Dishonorable Mention of the show’s interpretation of Tirac, but that may be more of an art style thing.

What good is power if you can't wear a pink cape?

 11. Almost Everyone in Game of Thrones (2011-)

I can’t help but notice that the characters of A Song of Ice and Fire are often described as having very memorable character designs.  I understand that some makeup effects need expensive CGI, and that Peter Dinklage is too beautiful to disfigure, therefore Tyrion has a scar that magically crossed his face without touching his nose.  Less than understandable is Roose Bolton, who is described as looking like an evil, terrifying version of Tommy Wiseau in a pink cape.  In the show he looks like someone’s alcoholic uncle.  This show should have been an anime.    

 10. The Joker

Brent Spiner, Young Justice (2010)

I always wondered what The Joker would look like if he was a GQ model.  Brent Spiner’s unbelievably bad voice acting doesn’t help.  Compare that to Mark Hamill, and that’s another point to Star Wars.

  9. The Sentinels

X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

They look like something out of an animated football interstitial.

  8. The Lizard

The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

The Lizard is one of the coolest-looking villains in the Spider-Man universe.  The lab coat and the purple pants are iconic, and it’s good to have a lizard’s jaws so he can actually bite things.  This version looks more grotesque than intimidating.

 7. Deadpool

Ryan Reynolds, X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

Yeah, enough people have complained about this one.

 6. The Penguin (When He’s Running Around in a Onesie)

Danny DeVito, Batman Returns (1992)

An interesting entry since he’s also on this list.  In his suit, he looks awesome, but he spends a great portion of the movie literally dressed like a baby.

 5. Green Goblin

Spider-Man (2002)

This unbelievably bad costume is worse when you consider some of the great concept art they made for it.

 4. Howard the Duck

Howard the Duck (1986)

This movie was supposed to be animated movie.  So instead of a lovable funny animal cartoon we got this off-putting monstrosity. 

 3. Shelob

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

I was waiting so long to see Shelob on the big screen and this is what she looked like.  That is the most generic, blandest spider you could possible come up with.

 2. All the Transformers

“Transformers” (2007)

Megatron looks nothing like himself.  Starscream really looks nothing like himself.  Optimus has a mouth (which they hid from us in the promotional material).  Bumblebee was 70’s Camaro (a fitting car) until he turned into a new Camaro because product placement.  And don't get me started about not casting Frank Welker as Megatron...

 1. Koopa

Dennis Hopper, Super Mario Bros. (1993)

What part of “fire-breathing turtle-dragon” did these bozos not understand?