Batman Movie Villains: 7 Perfect Performances & 7 That Sucked

4. The Penguin - Danny DeVito (Batman Begins)

In a real carnival of monsters, Danny DeVito's The Penguin is a stand-out, he's an extra level of grotesque, theatrical, melancholy and deeply, deeply Tim Burton. He's basically the character in Batman's universe most appropriate to his twisted, dark imagination.

While the alternative image of The Penguin as a street-tough criminal overlord is a good one, it's Burton and DeVito's portrait of him as a vulnerable "true" citizen of Gotham cast out for his oddities that rings more profoundly.

DeVito plays him almost like Frankenstein's monster in that respect, perpetually seeking to integrate with humanity, but bent and broken by its rejection of him and fundamentally poisoned by his treatment. That we're invited to sympathise with him perversely is the film's greatest genius.