Criteria:
No anti-heroes, must be the antagonist of the movie.
Must have been in a film from 2013 (duh).
No video game or television characters, that's a list for another time.
Must be a specific character or group of characters, not something generic like zombies (sorry, World War Z).
Oh yeah, just putting it out there, possible Spoilers ahead.
10. Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Chris D'Amico aka The Motherfucker from Kick-Ass 2: Despite this superhero sequel being a bit of a let-down, there's no denying the inexperienced villain is fun to watch. An idiotic crime lord with no clue what he's doing, Chris attempts to avenge his mobster father by becoming the world's first supervillain. Unfortunately, he's extremely ill-equipped for that task, even if he does manage to do some damage to Kick-Ass every once in a while.
9. Christopher Eccelston as Malekith the Accursed from Thor- The Dark World: This ancient warlord is from a time even before Odin or Thor, and is the king of the Dark Elves. A ruthless and extremely powerful being, Malekith is capable of defeating Thor in a fight, as well as summoning dark spells and creatures from his realm. He is obsessed with transforming Earth in his twisted image, which Thor and Loki must attempt to stop. Despite not being as interesting as the antihero Loki, Malekith is still a very threatening force. With his army of dark elves and magical powers, Malekith is nearly unstoppable.
8. Sharlto Copley as Kruger from Elysium: In Neill Blomkamp's science fiction thriller, Kruger serves as secondary antagonist. However, he proves to be much more entertaining and dangerous than Jodie Foster's powerful businesswoman character. He's an unstable and maniacal rapist, murderer, and mercenary who loves doing his job: getting paid to cause other people pain and suffering. A psychotic ex-soldier and criminal with advanced military training and a violent streak, Kruger is a force to be reckoned with.
7. Luke Evans as Owen Shaw from Fast & Furious 6: Despite being slightly bland, Owen Shaw is still a bad-ass villain. A dark mirror-image of Dom (Vin Diesel), Shaw is the leader of an evil group of car hijackers and criminals, who don't mind killing innocent people to get what they want. Despite being in a movie belonging to a franchise known for being over-the-top and silly, Shaw has a certain presence that grounds the film a bit more and adds a little bit of darkness to it. Shaw is threatening, ruthless, and best of all, actually well-written and acted, which is more than can be said than other villains from the franchise.
6. Tom Fitzpatrick as Parker Crane aka The Old Woman aka The Bride in Black from Insidious Chapter 2: In James Wan's latest chilling supernatural horror film, he decided to focus on one of the memorable ghosts from the first Insidious, the Old Woman ghost. Revealing her to be the ghost of a cross-dressing male serial killer with a tragic childhood, this film also features his/her mother as a major antagonist, but this scary transvestite murderer is more memorable and more terrifying. Despite the sad childhood, which makes you empathize with him/her, there's no denying this villain is one that will linger in your head long after the end credits, and pop up in your mind when alone in your house on dark nights.
5. Manu Bennett as Azog the White Orc from The Hobbit- The Desolation of Smaug: Despite Azog's role being diminished significantly from An Unexpected Journey, he still is no less threatening and still has a certain presence when he shows up on screen. Incredibly strong and fierce, this despised blood-thirsty warrior serves the dark lord Necromancer (who, if you know Tolkien's works, is revealed to be someone even more powerful and terrifying than Azog) and leads his Orc armies in an attempt to track down and brutally kill Bilbo, Gandalf, and the company of Dwarves, especially Thorin Oakenshield, who cut his arm off years before. Azog is a skilled fighter, hunter, and killer, who is still on the hunt for the dwarves at the end of this installment. Hopefully, the third and final film of the trilogy, sees the heroes finally take down this ruthless foe.
4. Benedict Cumberbatch as Smaug from The Hobbit- The Desolation of Smaug: This mighty dragon is the current resident of the Lonely Mountain. A bit of a narcissist, Smaug is huge, magnificent, malevolent, intelligent, greedy, and loves causing trouble for the people of Laketown and for anyone who dares to enter his gold-covered lair beneath the mountain. Smaug is capable of breathing fire, flying, and covering hundreds of feet in single steps. The excellent motion capture performance and chilling voice work by Cumberbatch really bring the character to life, and it was pretty awesome to finally see the dragon on screen after the cliffhanger at the end of An Unexpected Journey, even if it was only for 45 minutes. Side note: Speaking of cliffhangers, this film ends on a giant cliffhanger, which I won't spoil, but it involves the dragon, and it's pretty fucking stupid, but also is clever in that it really leaves you hanging and waiting to see what happens next.
3. Ben Kingsley and Guy Pierce as Trevor Slattery aka The Mandarin (decoy) and Aldrich Killian aka The Mandarin (real), respectively, from Iron Man 3 (tie): I couldn't decide between the se two. Despite Slattery being revealed to be a decoy near the climax, which pissed me off a little bit, I think for the time he was posing as The Mandarin, he did an absolutely fantastic job of capturing that character. Killian is a lot different than he was in the comics, and I think he did a great job pulling off the evil scientist role. Interestingly enough, there is a deleted sequence where Slattery gets injected with Extremis and becomes The Mandarin of the comics. People have also speculated that the comic-book Mandarin may also still be in future films, and may take revenge on Slattery for posing as him. Despite all that, The Mandarin is definitely a powerful and intelligent villain who knows how to take Tony Stark down, at least for a little while.
2. Michael Shannon as General Zod from Man of Steel: Zod is not only one of Superman's most challenging foes, he's also one of the last Kryptonians alive besides Superman. In this film, he's kind of a tragic villain, he's a conqueror who tries to take over Krypton via a coup d'état, but also, he's technically just following his orders: he was born to conquer and be a warrior. He leads his group of renegade soldiers to invade Earth and wipe out all humans so they can rebuild Krypton, but he also finds that Superman, who he tries to befriend, may stand in the way of that. Zod is a tragic villain, but is also extremely dangerous, strong, and an expert tactician and fighter, making him a threat to Superman and the people of Earth as a whole.
Honorable mentions:
Joseph Bishara as Bethseba from The Conjuring
Rooney Mara as Emily Banks from Side Effects
James McAvoy as Simon from Trance
Mila Kunis and Rachel Weisz as the Wicked Witches from Oz the Great and Powerful
Terence Howard as Alphonse Hoyt from Dead Man Down
William Fichtner as Butch Cavendish from The Lone Ranger
Barkhad Abdi as Abduwali Muse from Captain Phillips (didn't make the list as he's technically an anti-hero/tragic villain)
1. Benedict Cumberbatch as John Harrison aka Khan Noonien Singh from Star Trek- Into Darkness: In J.J. Abrams' reimagining of Gene Roddenberry's classic series, Kirk and his crew must take on Starfleet member John Harrison, later on revealed to be a 300-year-old super soldier named Khan, and Khan is not one to be crossed. Possessing superhuman strength, keen intellect, expert military training and tactical skills, and an extremely high tolerance for pain and injury, Khan is an unstoppable foe, who you can't out-think or out-fight, and can't get away from, no matter how hard you try. Despite having a tragic past, Khan is still nearly impossible to sympathize with, because of his savagery and ruthlessness, and the fact he will do absolutely anything to get what he wants. Khan is a brutal and frightening warrior who you wouldn't want to cross paths with when travelling through space.
Well, there you have it, I'll be posting Top 10 Heroes soon enough, hope you enjoyed the list, and give me feedback if you have any.
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