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"To say the least" is Word Cruft and can be cut, no question.
I would not have removed the entire line, though. "All three of the movie's villains are quite divisive" is not, by itself, a good entry but it serves just fine as an introductory paragraph leading into entries that go into more detail on each villain separately. Having that line communicates to the casual reader of the page (who may not know the work) that these are not just any characters, they are the three villains, and it's a (possibly) interesting coincidence that all three of them turned out to be divisive.
For the rewritten version, although it could stand to be trimmed, if it is actually true that the villains are one of the most criticised things about the film, then that does seem to be an interesting enough fact to bear pointing out.
How is this trim:
All of the villains are incredibly divisive and tend to be one of the most criticized things about the film, with many finding them entertaining or poorly written and unintentionally goofy
Edited by Bullman Fan-Preferred Couple cleanup thread

So on YMMV.The Amazing Spider Man 2 the following:
Now, I don't know if this is still word cruft or not with the rewording. I don't think it is an edit war as they might have believed that they managed to fix the problem by rewording this. So, should it be kept or removed?
Edited by Bullman