Mostly, pointing figures at Avatar and Expendables, wtf is up with all these devilishly cartoony bad guys? They just drip "ebiwl intentiowns".

What happened to classic Lawful Evil type guys, manipulating and working the system for an evil, if honorable goal?

Like the Emperor, massive 50 year plan to take power in Star Wars. He was evil, but not "Im killing babies!" evil.

I want more villains that you can almost sympathize with. : /

I agree, but I guess that would make it too lifelike. I have never studied a real "villain" in history whom I couldn't *partially* sympathize with after learning about the experiences and hardships they faced, which lead to them being "evil". It's easy to take an outside view of someone, like Hitler, and say, "That person is completely evil blah blah blah...". But if we are to actually learn about that person, one can understand why they became the way they did. Although, that doesn't make it excusable, but it's a good way to learn the proper way to handle situations and hardships. I actually feel sorry for Hitler in a way. Though I don't excuse him for his actions, I can understand him. Then again, I'm the type of person that wishes I could help people, like him, become more understanding and forgiving.

Anyway, I'm just rambling now. I would very much like to see more villains that aren't so obviously villainous and with whom you can sympathize. But this would present a moral dilemma to the audience, and God forbid people actually have to think rather than mindlessly stare at a screen.

I agree. Writers usually need to give their villains traits and/or a background that the audience can use to better sympathize with the villain if the writer wants the villain to be a more rounded character. I generally view this as good practice because rarely is someone completely evil (or good) in reality.

Lawful evil is harder to do well (as opposed to coming off even cheesier if anything, or just badly done) and has less of an obvious effect. Also, people stick with what they know and what works for the most part.