The Best Movie Villains

Every story that has a hero has to have a villain.  This is pretty much a requirement in any form of story-telling whether it’s in movies, video games, books, or comic books.  It’s been said that a hero is only as good as his/her villain, and in a lot of cases that is true.  Not all, but a lot.  For this list, I’m going to leave out horror movie and Disney villains, as those are lists for a different post or two.  I’m going to focus not just on the villain himself but the actor/actress’s performance as well, since that helps sell the character.  In certain cases, the villain isn’t always going to be evil.  Misguided maybe, but not necessarily evil.  Some the best villains are the ones that believe that what they are doing is the right thing.  So, let’s get right into it:  These are The Best Movie Villains.

Skeletor – Masters of the Universe

For all the crap that Masters of the Universe has gotten over the years as a movie, the one thing that most people definitely remember from that movie is the villain.  Frank Langella’s performance as Skeletor is amazing.  He chews the scenery like it’s nobody’s business.  While the make-up on the character is questionable, it’s sold by Langella’s over-the-top performance.  The character is pure evil and he knows it.  While the film has been billed as a rip-off of Star Wars, it’s definitely worth watching.  It’s not really a terrible movie.  It just hit at the wrong time.  And made by the wrong people.

Dark Helmet – Spaceballs

Now this one is deliberate.  This is one of Mel Brooks’s best spoofs ever.  The film makes fun of every science fiction trope in the book as well as Star Wars and Star Trek.  The character of Dark Helmet is clearly a riff on the classic Star Wars villain, Darth Vader.  With snappy and clever writing, Rick Moranis’s performance as Dark Helmet is probably one of the funniest bad guys in movie history.  If you haven’t seen Spaceballs, what the hell is wrong with you?  As far as I’m concerned, it’s required viewing.

The Kurgan – Highlander

When it comes to big-screen movie bad guys, the Kurgan from Highlander is one of the most memorable.  Again, it’s the performance that drives the character and Clancy Brown is just mesmorizing.  He’s clearly having a ton of fun, and the fights between Kurgan and Connor MacLeod are simply phenomenal.  The character himself is something to be feared.  The Kurgan is the strongest of all the Immortals and should he win The Prize, that would mean the end of the world.  Highlander is one of the most underrated action films of the 80’s.

General Zod – Superman II

Ahh…General Zod.  He is one of the most infamous villains in Superman’s Rogue Gallery, mostly because he’s a fellow Kryptonian.  The character was initially charged with the defense of the planet Krypton when he decided that it would be better for him to rule instead of the council, so he turned his forces on his fellow people.  In the movies, Zod has been played by two people.  Michael Shannon in Man of Steel and Terence Stamp in the first two Superman films.  Michael Shannon did a fantastic job as Zod, but it was Terence Stamp that really made the character popular.  Stamp’s campy and over-the-top performance was something out of this world.  His performance fits because Superman II was pretty campy.  KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!

Captain Hook – Hook

 

Steven Spielberg’s Hook was released to some pretty mixed reactions back in 1991.  I don’t know why, I loved it.  It was pure fantasy and is now considered to be one of the best interpretations of Peter Pan.  Part of what made the movie so damn good was Dustin Hoffman as Captain James Hook.  He didn’t necessarily play it completely over-the-top, but his performance is simply iconic.  I’ve never seen anybody play Captain Hook the way Dustin Hoffman did.  Not only did they get the look right, but they nailed the character’s personality.  He’s not a nice guy, but he’s not stupid.  This is a great villain for a great movie.

M. Bison – Street Fighter: The Movie

You know, sometimes it’s just worth going into a bad movie just for the villain.  Street Fighter is a perfect example.  The movie is pretty bad, but it’s in a “so bad, it’s good” kind of way.  A lot of times, the villain upstages everybody else, and Raul Julia as M. Bison is no exception.  This is Mr. Julia’s final performance before he died, and you can tell that he was sick, but that didn’t stop Julia from delivering the performance of a lifetime.  Street Fighter: The Movie may be awful, but Raul Julia is phenomenal.

The Joker – Tim Burton’s Batman/Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight.

Of all of Batman’s villains, which include Ra’s Al Ghul, Scarecrow, The Riddler, and Two-Face, it’s The Joker that remains The Bat’s greatest villain.  Why?  The Joker is Batman’s polar opposite.  While Batman represents order and justice, the Joker is all about chaos and insanity.  While there have been many interesting interpretations of the character, the two that stand out the most are Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger.  You guys get a two-for-one on this one, because both Jokers are absolutely astounding.  Jack Nicholson’s take on the character has a more light-hearted and more slap-stick approach.  He’s still scary but you get a few laughs out of it.  Heath Ledger’s character is a terrorist, through-and-through.  He also has no fear and only wants to see the world burn.  Ledger’s performance is amazing.  In fact, Ledger got a posthumous Academy Award for his performance.  Jack Nicholson also stole the show, albeit in a different way.  Both versions are phenomenal and both movies are great.

Darth Vader – Star Wars

There are many memorable villains in movies, some of which I have already mentioned.  In 1977, we got our greatest villain in cinematic history:  Darth Vader.  The moment Darth Vader stepped on to that Rebel Blockade Runner in the original film, audiences went crazy.  This was a villain the likes of which nobody had seen before.  He wielded a red lightsaber and was extremely powerful with The Force.  Empire Strikes Back upped the ante for the villain by revealing Vader to be Luke’s father.  This was the greatest twist in movies up to that point.  This was the guy that was responsible for laying waste to the Jedi Order.  That’s my list for some of the best movie villains.

 

 

 

 

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