3. Bane
Despite having to live up to Heath Ledger's iconic portrayal of the Joker and enduring substantial criticism of his voice and motivations, Bane might have been the best thing about The Dark Knight Rises. Tom Hardy plays Bane as a force of nature and an unstoppable killing machine who might very well be the most intimidating villain in any modern superhero film. Despite the criticism, the most intriguing thing about Bane might be his motivations. Unlike most villains, Bane completely realizes that he is the bad guy, calling himself a "necessary evil" but he fervently believes that destroying Gotham is the right thing to do. Most of the best scenes in The Dark Knight Rises happen because of Bane, including the beat-down of Batman and the sequence in which the rules of occupation are relayed to Gotham. Even though the filmmakers killed him off in the laziest possible way, Bane does enough in The Dark Knight Rises to become one of the most fearsome movie villains of the modern era.