Who Are the Least Intimidating Movie Villains of All Time?
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery & Suspense, Fandom, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels, Lists
Over the years, we've seen several lists that attempt to name the top movie villains of all time. From Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) in Die Hard (my personal favorite) to Jack Nicholson's Joker, we could probably sit here, throw out a number of intimidating bad guys and debate all day long. But what about the least intimidating? Those baddies who were supposed to frighten us, but couldn't quite live up to their evil reputations?
Well, The Phat Phree has come up with a list of the 11 least intimidating movie villains of all time ... and I must say, they're pretty spot on ... except for two. Let's see, we have Mr. Glass (Samuel L. Jackson) in Unbreakable, Madison Lane (Demi Moore) in Charlie's Angels 2, Chucky in Child's Play (c'mon, it's a doll!), The Goblin King Jareth (David Bowie) in Labyrinth, Darth Vader (the Hayden Christensen version), Nuclear Man (Mark Pillow) in Superman IV and (perhaps their best pick) John Travolta in everything (Broken Arrow, Battlefield Earth, Face Off, The Punisher, Swordfish), among others. One of the villains I strongly disagree with is John Kreese (Martin Kove) in Karate Kid 1, 2 and 3. Talk about intimidating -- when I was growing up, that guy scared the crap out of me. I actually quit Karate lessons just so I didn't have to run into one of him down the line. Seriously.
Another bad pick (thrown in as an honorable mention) was Zod (Terrence Stamp) from Superman 2. No way! Zod was The Man! And certainly a very intimidating villain. Check out their list and let us know who should or shouldn't be on there. If you ask me, almost every Batman villain (Danny DeVito as The Penguin? Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze?) should've at least got a mention. What say you?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-05-2007 @ 3:20AM
Nick James said...
KNEEL BEFORE ZOD! Whomever threw Zod onto that list is a total fool.
Mr. Freeze easily trumps that list. "Ice. Cold. Winter. Chill. Feeze. Chill. Winter. Chill! Ice. Freeze. Freeze. Freeze. Freeze! Let's.. kick some ice!"
Yeah, you all know what's up.
Reply
2-05-2007 @ 11:44AM
Marc V said...
I'll second the addition of Batman foes, though they are supposed to be cartoonish. Besides that body stocking Jim Carrey wore, how intimidating was he? He bashed people with a walking stick.
Mr. Glass was not meant to be intimidating but appeared weak on first impression. The story in "Unbreakable" was built around his "bad lot" in life and how he got around it to cause disasters and kill many people. He wanted to be a comic book bad guy by finding the "hero" with special powers.
POSSIBLE SPOILER: I only wish that Shymalan had let Glass get away to a secret hide-out rather than the tidy wrap-up he presented at the end of "Unbreakable". It's one movie of his that may have made for a good sequel, particularly if Glass had gone after the hero's family.
Reply
2-05-2007 @ 12:10PM
matthew m. barnes said...
Danny DeVito wasn't supposed to be intimidating as the Penguin. you were supposed to almost pity the guy. he was more pathetic as a person. he was gross and weird... but he wasn't really supposed to be intimidating. i thought he did a great job with that role.
Mr. Freeze was horrible.
and as entertaining as he was, Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor was never really intimidating.
Reply
2-05-2007 @ 11:18AM
Goose said...
Joaquin Phoenix was a total weakling in Gladiator.
Reply
2-05-2007 @ 6:20PM
theCinema said...
I agree with you Matt. Danny DeVito was awesome as the Penguin.
Reply
2-07-2007 @ 12:05PM
Sam Diamond said...
My list would have to include Stuart Wilson as Jack Travis in Lethal Weapon 3... Maybe Gary Busey and the Psycho South African Diplomats are a hard act to follow, but I was never worried about this guy getting away with anything.
In his defense, he was MUCH better in The Mask of Zorro...
Reply