Top 5 Worst Love Interests in Super-Hero Movies

Since Superman in 1978, there has been a pretty consistent pattern in super-hero movies, especially those based on popular comic books: a love interest who usually ends up in danger and who acts as humanizer for our hero. After watching Green Lantern and Thor this summer (more thoughts on those movies in a later post), the pattern held. And a question arose in my mind: who is the worst love interest in super-hero movie history? So that of course devolved into a ranking and a top (or bottom) 5. So here you go.

Top 5 Worst Love Interests in Super-Hero Movies

1. Kim Bassinger (Vicki Vale) — Batman (1989)
2. Blake Lively (Carol Ferris) — Green Lantern (2011)
3. Maggie Gyllenhaal (Rachel Daws) — The Dark Knight (2008)
4. Kirsten Dundst (Mary Jane Watson) —  Spider-Man (2002), Spider-Man 2 (2004), Spider-Man 3 (2007)
5. Eva Mendes (Roxanne Simpson) — Ghost Rider (2007)

Commentary
Kim Bassinger set the bar so low in Batman, that it will take a monumentally poor effort to ever unseat her. Blake Lively tried to reach her level of plastic-ness, but was unable to. Shame on you, Blake.

I realize I’m probably in the minority with Maggie Gyllenhaal, but I don’t like her, and she turned the Rachel character from a tough-minded woman into a bore. I wasn’t all that disappointed when she died.

Kirsten Dundst has the honor of bringing her poor portrayal of MJ to three movies. Unlike Gyllenhall’s character, Dundst’s character survived all three films (much to my disappointment). And Eva Mendes is not good in Ghost Rider; of course, neither was anyone else, so maybe I should have graded her on a curve.

Interestingly enough, despite the lackluster love interests, all of these movies (besides Ghost Rider) is certainly re-watchable, and Batman, The Dark Knight, Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2 are very good movies, with many saying The Dark Knight is the best in the genre’s history. So maybe a great leading lady isn’t all that important to have an awesome super-hero flick…