The problem I have with Malekith is I just don’t remember a damned thing about him. Pretty much every other Marvel villain, I can remember at least one good interaction with the hero, or a great fight scene, or at least a cool one liner. While I can remember a lot of cool bits from Dark World, none of them involve Malekith. I just recall this guy standing around glaring at everyone until he dies at the end. Even the big fight at the end, where they keep warping through different world: that was super-cool, but and I don’t remember Malekith in it at all.
Actually, Ronan from Guardians wasn’t much better. He didn’t even get a good fight scene: he’s defeated at the end by all the good guys holding hands at him.
I agree that Ronan and Malekith were boring and forgettable. Strangely, the quality of the villain in MCU movies doesn’t seem to have a whole lot to do with the overall quality of the movie – Ronan was much worse than Loki, I thought, but Guardians of the Galaxy was still a lot better than Thor, in my opinion.
My ranking of MCU villains (from my memory, so I won’t include them all):
Top tier (great): Loki, the Mandarin (as the hilarious British actor guy)
Second Tier (good): Obadiah Stane (Iron Monger), Ultron, Red Skull, Robert Redford (forget his character’s name) and assorted Hydra, the Sam Rockwell character from Iron Man 2
Third Tier (decent): Whiplash, the Extremis dude from Iron Man 3, Yellowjacket
Bottom Tier (very forgettable): Ronan, Malekith
No, Extremis is just another in a long line of failed attempts to recreate the Super Soldier serum. The red stuff in Dark World was the Aether, which is generated by the Reality Stone.
Comic Book Resources is reporting that the villain in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 will be the being known mainly as “Her” in the comics (though she has used other names as well). Like Ronan, her character in the comics isn’t particularly villainous, so it’s very possible that GotG2 will continue the trend of villains who don’t really measure up.
The character of “Her” in the comics is a female version of Adam Warlock, which might mean that long-time speculation that Warlock is Star Lord’s father is correct. Or even without that, it might at least simply bring Warlock into the MCU altogether, which would make sense given the overarching Infinity Stones/Thanos thrust of the MCU super-story.
In the context of the MCU. Peter Gunn has very clearly said that in the movies, Star Lord’s father is not J’Son of Spartax, and this is taken to imply that he is some other, known Marvel Universe character (though likely one new to the MCU, prior to GotG2).
I actually like to imagine this scene in real life with Obama facing off with Putin over a presumptive attack on Poland or Romania. “Dance off, Vlad! You and me, you big turd-blossom!” Best international conflict resolution ever.
I’ve personally formed the notion that Peter’s father is Eros, AKA Starfox - Thanos’ brother.
No huge reason, but it does tie Guardians more closely into the whole Thanos storyline, fits the love-'em and leave 'em mentality (apparent) of Peter’s father, and provides that “something very ancient” that Nova Prime noted in Peter’s biology.