Birds Of Prey: Every Character In The Movie Ranked Worst To Best
2. Black Mask
There are few people in this world who have had more fun than Ewan McGregor playing Black Mask. Swanning around like a supervillain version of There Will Be Blood's Daniel Plainview, the disturbed Roman Sionis is one of the very best villains to feature in a DC movie.
Like his henchman, he similarly tows the line between comedy and brutality (an early, tone-setting sequence sees him order a hostage hanging upside down to have her face cut off, because he doesn't like the snot bubble building in her nose), and gleefully hams up every scene he's in.
McGregor has refered to Sionis as the ultimate narcassist, and that's exactly how he plays him. The villain is like a spoiled kid who never emotionally developed, and is prone to fits violence when the whole world isn't looking at him (or worse, if he thinks the whole world is laughing at him).
What's brilliant about this Black Mask is that while he's constantly undermined (at one point Harley criticises him for being a one-note villain, and nowhere near as complex as he thinks he is), he constantly feels like a threat. Part of that is down to the aforementioned face-slicing, but also because of the way McGregor flicks between manic, charismatic childishness and volatile aggression.
He's a great antagonist, and the end of his story brings the kind of fist-pumping glee action movies are made for.