2012 was a pretty great year for
movies of all kinds: blockbusters, indies, and all points between. It
was a particularly good year for villains. Here are five of the baddest
baddies of 2012:
Queen Ravenna - Charlize Theron, 'Snow White & the Huntsman.'
OK, so this isn't one of those movies that made 2012 great in any
traditional sense. One thing it does have, though, is a deliciously evil
performance by the Oscar-winning Charlize. You make being bad look
goooooood, girl.
The Zec - Werner Herzog, 'Jack Reacher'
Best known for two things -- his classic resumé as a film director and
being a little, shall we say, eccentric -- Werner Herzog also
occasionally acts, and Tom Cruise's latest, "Jack Reacher," benefits
greatly from Herzog's strange, spooky performance as the mysterious Zec.
3. Bane - Tom Hardy, "The Dark Knight Rises"
Pay no attention to the complaints about Bane's mask muffling his
dialogue: All you need to know about Tom Hardy's performance in that
movie you can see in his too-massive-to-seem-real physique and hulking,
menacing posture. Hardy's Bane was a truly worthy adversary for the
climactic entry in Christopher Nolan's "Batman" trilogy.
2. Raoul Silva - Javier Bardem, 'Skyfall'
The beneficiary of a brilliantly composed introductory shot, Bardem's
Silva walks slowly toward the camera, growing larger and larger as his
flamboyant villain monologue grows more flamboyant and more villainous.
That his whole deal as a villain was to take revenge on Judi Dench (!)
makes him all the bigger scoundrel.
1. Calvin J. Candie - Leonardo DiCaprio, 'Django Unchained'
Quentin Tarantino, no novice at creating memorable bad guys, told
Playboy magazine that Leonardo DiCaprio's Calvin Candie was the first
character he'd ever written that he truly, viscerally despised, to the
point where he didn't know how to bring the character to screen. With
DiCaprio's help, the character becomes truly one for the ages: a vicious
monster of a diabolical aristocracy who takes genuine pleasure in
owning and dehumanizing other human beings. By far, he's the villain of
the year.
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