Do we like Thanos?
A character from Avengers: Infinity War (Marvel Cinematic Universe) (2018)
Our score: 1 out of 10. Calm, clever and oddly sympathetic, but his plan is mass murder on a cosmic scale. Charismatic villain, terrible cause, so we wouldn't back him.
Thanos is the Mad Titan, a giant warlord who looms over the Marvel films for years before he takes centre stage. He is hinted at in the background of earlier movies, and Josh Brolin plays him through motion capture. He wants the six Infinity Stones, cosmic gems that together give near-limitless power. He sends his adopted children and armies across the galaxy to collect them while the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy try to stop him.
What makes him memorable is that he doesn't see himself as a villain. He is patient and soft-spoken, he thinks about what he does, and he is completely sure he is right. He believes the universe has too many people and too few resources, and that killing half of them at random is a kind of mercy. Critics praised Brolin's performance for making him feel almost reasonable, even though the plan is monstrous.
That's why he scores so low. His reasoning is calm and his conviction is real, but he never listens to anyone who disagrees, and he treats people as numbers. He is the sort of antagonist you can understand but would never follow. He does show a flicker of love for the people closest to him, but it never changes what he does. The film makes you feel his pain and then shows how far he will go anyway.