5. Anthony Hopkins Thor
You might be noticing that so far, most of the hammiest performers are actually Oscar winners. Well, theres a good reason for that while theyre definitely not the only people who can act hammily, theyre probably the only people who could get away with such overwrought, melodramatic scenes. And so it proved in Thor. Clearly, Kenneth Branagh and company were thrilled with the boon of having Anthony bloody Hopkins, an actual knight of the realm, portraying a comic book character and Hopkins himself was clearly game for some fun as Odin. After all, all movies operate by the Flash Gordon principle you dont dress up in garish, sparking armour and expect awards. Unlike some hammy performances though, Hopkins was right on the money. Weve tried arthouse superheroes before see Ang Lees Hulk and that failed utterly. People were confused by the interpretation, asking why the big green rage monster was exploring his feelings and not exploderising his environment in awesome-cool ways. Im not saying that superhero film audiences are expecting less, theyre just expecting everything to be so much bigger. Hopkins was more than willing to meet them halfway on this the man actually growled Loki into silence and gave possibly the most shouty punishment speech ever given in the history of cinema. He wanted you to know that this was a fight amongst gods, and he communicated through the medium of shouting. Hopkins Odin didnt have an indoor voice, and as the Allfather of the Universe, he damn well doesnt need one.