Top 10 Villains Of The Summer 2008

Great bad guys make great movies. A compelling villain can make or save an average movie and make a good movie great. This summer hasn’t had the richest crop of great screen villains, but there certainly were a few notable ones. So now I present to you The Movie Blog’s top 10 villains of the Summer of 2008. (Remember, this isn’t a list of the best movies or best actors, just the best villains)

#1 – JOKER (THE DARK KNIGHT) No doubts. No debate. No close calls and no chance of error. Heath Ledger’s Joker was the crown jewel in this year’s biggest box office movie. Without question Ledger will at the very least get an Oscar nomination (it’s too early to say if he deserves to win or not since there are a lot of movies still to come out this year) and in my opinion was the best comic book movie villain of all time.

#2 – PRINCE NUADA (HELLBOY 2) There is something extra terrifying about villains who believe they are on the side of right. Who believe their cause is just and noble. Prince Nuada had that plus other attributes that make a great bad guy. He could kick your ass and is frighteningly intelligent. Every second he was on screen was great stuff. Too bad he wasn’t in it more.

#3 – TAI LUNG (KUNG FU PANDA) This was one of those movies that totally surprised me. Yes, I expected cute characters with witty little one liners, but what elevated all of that was a legitimately scary and frightening threat… the bad guy of the film Tai Lung. Smooth and slick, beautifully designed and perfectly voiced… Tai Lung almost seemed like he belonged in a more adult film.

#4 – CHUCK “THE TRUCK” WALLANCE (THE FOOT FIST WAY) Differnt types of movies call for difference types of villains. In a movie like The Foot Fist Way, a guy like Chuck “The Truck” Wallace was exactly the type of character you needed. Slimy, dirty, underhanded… and yet hilarious at the same time. He was the best part of this movie.

#5 – EMIL BLONSKY (INCREDIBLE HULK) Even though I appreciated the first Hulk movie for what it was, it was universally agreed upon that one of its biggest weaknesses was the horrible villain… phantom Nolte. If this new Hulk film did nothing else except upgrade the bad guy, it would have been a 25% better movie. Upgrade the bad guy they DID! Even before he become Abomination, Blonsky was a formidable character. Driven. Dangerous and focused. A huge step up from the Hulk daddy of the first film.

#6 – MAHOGANY (MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN) This is a great example of what a solid villain can do for your movie. I personally ended up not enjoying Midnight Meat Train all that much… but without Mahogany the film would have totally sucked. This character alone nearly makes the movie passable. He’s silent, never speaks a word in the movie… and yet that does nothing but add to the creepiness of his presence. Had the film been a bit better, you could have built a franchise around this guy… he could have been the new Jason.

#7 – TED JONES (PINAPPLE EXPRESS) Once again, in a film like Pineapple Express you need a slighly different kind of villain. Has to be legitimately intimidating, but ridiculous at the same time. King dope dealer Ted Jones (how perfect is that name for him!!??!) fit the bill perfectly. Every scene he had he spouted something hilarious, and yet you never doubted he’d kill you in a split second if you inconvenienced him in the slightest way

#8 – SLOAN (WANTED) Just the fact that Morgan Freeman rules is enough to make this character great… but there was a lot more to Sloan that just the actor reciting his lines. The caretaker of a thousand year old fraternity of assassins, cunning, well educated and brilliant. Calm in demeanor and cold in his goals… this is one guy you don’t want to mess with

#9 – KING MIRAZ (PRINCE CASPIAN) King Miraz, a man who killed his own brother to take the throne of Narnia is a cold, calculating strategist who manipulates and deceives to achieve his ends. But as decent as he was, this is another example of when the villain can either make your franchise better or worse. The last Narnia film had the White Queen, who was just amazing. Poor King Miraz could live up to that villain, and so Prince Caspian as a whole couldn’t live up to The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.

#10 – OBADIAH STANE (IRON MAN) Stane was a nice little villain and served the film well… up until he became Iron Monger, then he got a silly over the top and silly. Still, up to that point Jeff Bridges served the film well. But here’s the thing, and I know I’ll take a lot of heat for this BUT I STAND BY THIS: If you just switched villains between Iron Man and The Dark Knight… Iron Man instantly becomes the better movie of the two. That’s how much power the villain has in a movie.

So there you have it. Like I said, it wasn’t the best summer for villains, but man there were a couple of sweet ones. Which ones would you knock off that list (if you knock one off, you’ve got to suggest who should take his place). Which villain did I forget about that you think deserves a spot on there?