10 Actors Who Gave Their Best Ever Performance In Bad Movies
6. Ian McDiarmid - Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge Of The Sith
The Star Wars prequels are among the most disappointing blockbuster films of all time, and though fans regularly deem the trilogy-capping Revenge of the Sith the best one, what they really mean is that it's the one that sucks the least.
It's still a clumsy mess that awkwardly attempts to bridge the gap between two cinematic epochs, and there's really only one element of the movie that comes out entirely unscathed.
That is, of course, Ian McDiarmid's delicious performance as Emperor Palpatine.
While practically everyone else in the prequel trilogy was taking their material deathly seriously, McDiarmid went entirely the other way, proving well aware of the nonsense he was working with and just having a ton of fun with it.
This reaches its hammy apex in Revenge of the Sith, then, where McDiarmid was evidently given carte blanche to mug and snarl at every errant opportunity, resulting in a multitude of meme-worthy moments such as Palp's immortal screech, "Unlimited power!"
But this isn't some ironically entertaining "so bad it's good" performance: McDiarmid makes Palpatine charismatic and dementedly terrifying all in the same breath.
While the prequels took their silly mythos far too seriously for the most part, Palpatine comes to represent the campy fun that George Lucas should've been aiming for all along.
Though McDiarmid's award-winning work on the stage speaks for itself, his performance as Palpatine is, in popular discourse, sure to be his crowning achievement.