Movie Villains Who Didn’t Deserve Their Punishment

As Max Dillon first tells Spider-Man after the web-crawler rescues him from harm's way, "I'm a nobody." Max Dillon is a person at the end of his rope before Spidey saves him, which causes a lifelong obsession with the hero. 

At work, his superiors mistreat him, even forcing Dillon to work overtime on his birthday. While fixing an electrical issue, he is shocked and gains incredible electric abilities. When Max eventually reconnects with his hero, Spidey no longer remembers him, and Dillon becomes enraged after learning that he doesn't have a single friend in the world. Dillon is later broken out of prison and used by Harry Osborn to get back at Spider-Man. Dillon eventually perishes in a fight with Spidey, where he is overloaded and seemingly disintegrates. 

At the end of the day, Dillon doesn't deserve his fate. What he really needed was therapy. He needed someone to help him, instead of those around him constantly using, manipulating, or ignoring him.

In X2, Lady Deathstrike works with X-Men antagonist William Stryker and repeatedly comes to blows with the X-Men. Eventually, while fighting with Wolverine, he pumps her body full of adamantium, gruesomely ending her as it drips from her eyes. 

While taking her out removes a major threat, the mutant behind the adamantium claws doesn't deserve that fate, and it's on the X-Men for not trying harder to free her. She was a captive of Stryker, who was being held under his spell from a literal mind-control serum. No matter what she may have done while brainwashed, she didn't deserve such a graphic end over actions she couldn't control. 

General Hummel seems villainous but always has good intentions at heart. As a veteran of the Marine Corps, he's righteously angry about the poor treatment of his fellow Marines. During his time in the service, he watched good men meet their ends during missions that weren't officially sanctioned by the US government. That meant they never received proper recognition, and their families never received compensation. 

General Hummel channels his frustration into a rogue hostage operation. He and some of his men take over Alcatraz and threaten the mainland with a dangerous biological agent. His goal is to be paid out $100 million not for himself, but to distribute between the families of fallen soldiers. Eventually, it becomes clear that Hummel has no intention of actually firing his rockets, as he is a good man who is trying to do right by his fellow veterans. Sadly, his co-conspirators aren't as noble and take out the general so he can't stop them from following through with the original plan.

Ed Rooney's great sin in Ferris Bueller's Day Off is simply doing his duty as principal of his school. Is that really so bad? 

The movie focuses on a charming truant who takes a day off from class to take a deep breath and enjoy life. There are plenty of essays that allege Bueller is the true villain of his film due to the manipulation of his friends and family. That interpretation may be true, but even if it isn't, Rooney definitely isn't an actual villain.

Rooney is tasked with a job. He's the principal of the school. Meaning, his job is to keep students in class to receive an education. Bueller is a frequent troublemaker whose day off causes a disruptive "Save Ferris" campaign across Rooney's school. He has to do something about Ferris, and in trying to return the boy to school, he goes a little too far and ends up humiliated and hitching a ride on a bus filled with students.

Erik Killmonger stands out as one of the most memorable villains in the MCU, and for good reason. He's an easy character to sympathize with, seeing as he was born into a troubled life and only desires to help others break free from the same oppression he experienced growing up. 

His father was slain at the hands of the Black Panther and leader of Wakanda, T'Chaka. Killmonger's father, N'Jobu, wanted to use Wakanda's vibranium to arm oppressed people across the world. This went against Wakanda's strictly isolationist foreign policy. 

When Killmonger comes of age, he fights for control of Wakanda in order to carry out his father's plans and legacy. While his methods are aggressive, if Wakanda had been willing to apply its might in the past, he could have been reformed. Even T'Challa feels the same way, but Killmonger instead chooses death over bondage. 

Gollum's story is one of pure tragedy. He begins his life as a being similar to a hobbit, but his dependence on the Ring turns him into a vile monster. He knows not of the power he wields, and it instantly corrupts him, causing him to slay his cousin for the Ring. 

The Ring, even with all its power, is nothing more than a curse on Gollum's life. It causes him to live 400 years, most of which are spent like an animal in a cave. When he eventually loses the Ring, his compulsion for it causes him to go to any length to get it back. Eventually, when Frodo brings the ring to Mt. Doom to destroy it, Gollum bites off his finger and steals it. Frodo then pushes Gollum into the lake, where he is consumed by the lava. 

Gollum doesn't deserve this fate. He's an addict who had no idea of what he was getting himself into. Just like so many others in Middle-earth, he is a victim of Sauron.