2. Bane (The Dark Knight Rises)
And now for the most popular character on the list and the one I almost put as number 1. I'll admit it, I'm not a Batman fan. I never have been and never will be. I am, however, a fan of the films that Christopher Nolan made that happened to be about Batman. In the final installment in the trilogy, they needed a villain that could be more threatening than Heath Ledger's Joker and they found him. Bane wasn't scary, he was terrifying - there's a huge difference, believe me. Nothing else could be a bigger compliment. The whole climax of the film with Bane's capture of Gotham felt dangerously close to the grim nature of reality. He was showcased as an actual terrorist who could have
technically pulled off what he pulled off in the real world. The effect of his character was grand; it was theatrical, it was glorious, and it was everything a successful supervillain needed. Many say he was trivialized by Talia's introduction - I was one of those people before - but he couldn't have been trivialized if he wasn't effective in the first place. Let's talk about Tom Hardy though. He was brilliant. I wasn't sure if that "distinguished" voice would work, but as the film went on, it only worked to enhance what the role required. Hardy had just the right amount of drama in his voice work; enough to give him "star quality" if you will, but also controlled enough to prevent him from being a joke. His voice aside, Hardy just standing there in the sewer spewed charisma; don't get me started on his desperate punches in the final fistfight with Batman - they were breathtaking. It was obvious Hardy took this role seriously, which is different from anything else he's done. He is still misunderstood, somewhat slick, a complete loner, and a crippling softy due to his love for Talia, but man this was in another league. Bravo Tom Hardy, you show them who the shadows belong to!