Trailer Tuesday: the best villains of all time

The villain. Smart, cunning and crafty. A worthy opponent. Their evil actions are often justified by righteous motives. That's what makes them so human. So relatable. Then there are those who are just pure evil. So devilishly evil that they cam send a shiver down our spine and give a story that certain something.

This week's Trailer Tuesday: five of my personal favourite villains, sorted in ascending order.

Fifth place: Koba (Toby Kebbell) – «Dawn of the Planet of the Apes»

Koba, played by Toby Kebbell, gets into my top 5 on his underdog status: in my opinion, this hate-filled monkey from the new «Planet of the Apes» trilogy is way too underappreciated.

Koba is by no means a clumsily written antagonist, who only serves to reflect the good qualities of the hero in an evil way. Sure, Caesar (Andy Serkis) – the hero – is good-natured and complex. While Koba on the other hand is quick to anger and suspicious of the stranger. So far, so formulaic.

But there's more behind Koba's innocuous surface-level characterisation: as a former laboratory ape, he was tortured and tormented by humans. He's scarred and deformed. This only serves to feed his vindictiveness. Where Caesar grew up sheltered and loved by his human foster-father Will Rodman (James Franco), Koba only knew pain and hate. That's what makes his actions so comprehensible. Koba is a much more profound antagonist than we usually expect from this genre. When Koba accuses Caesar of loving humans more than his own kind, we finally understand that there is a gaping wound in his soul that never really healed properly. Caesar's former brother now becomes his worst enemy.

Release date in cinemas: 9. July, 2014
Earnings: 710.6 million dollars

Fourth place: Thanos (Josh Brolin) – «Avengers: Infinity War»

Thanos. I can't remember the last time I saw a villain with such a dominating presence and invulnerable aura surrounding him.

We first saw him in 2012's «Avengers». He was the true puppet master behind the events surrounding the Battle of New York. Still, he was only a bystander, looming, watching the events from a distance. It wasn't until six years later, in «Avengers: Infinity War», that we got to witness him in all his glory.

And what a performance it was: Josh Brolin found the perfect balance between cool calculation and terrifying insanity. Thanos is cruel and consistent, but his motives are understandable. In Thanos' mind, he's saving the universe from a fate that once devastated his own people: overpopulation.

Release date in cinemas: 25. April 2018
Earnings: 2.05 billion dollars

Third place: Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) – «Inglourious Basterds»

Is there a better written or acted Tarantino villain than Nazi commander Hans Landa? Hardly. This isn't only thanks to Tarantino, who wrote the script and thus the character. We also need to remember the Austrian actor Christoph Waltz, whose performance was rightly honoured with an Oscar.

What makes Hans Landa so fascinating? Hard to say. Waltz himself once said, that film students could write an entire thesis about Landa without ever really getting beyond scratching the surface of the character – that's how deep and complex he is.

I am personally impressed by his unusual duality: likeable malice, which shouldn't work. At the same time, however, there's also this repulsive decency, or an uncanny compulsion to being well-mannered. This is what makes Tarantino and Waltz's Hans Landa so unforgettable for me.

Release date in cinemas: 19. August 2009
Earnings: 321.5 million dollars

Second place: Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) – «Joker»

Joaquin Phoenix's Joker is the most complex cinema adaptation of Batman's nemesis to date. After all, Arthur Fleck – later simply known as «Joker» – is a tragic figure, cast out by society and shaken by fate.

And that's not all. Even deranged psychopaths deserve pity. Not for their actions. For this, they should be convicted and punished. But we must always remember what made them who they are. Because inflicting suffering on others – killing – goes completely against anything that is human. People who do it anyway have endured unspeakable suffering for a long time. Physically. Mentally. Or even both. Until their spirit breaks. Just like what happened to Arthur Fleck.

What makes Phoenix's performance so special is that it confronts the viewer with an uncomfortable truth: too often, we quickly condemn evil actions without asking ourselves what motivated them. In the end, the only way we can live side by side in harmony is by understanding each other and seeking help from others. Still, we live in a society...

Release date in cinemas: 2. October 2019
Earnings: 1.07 billion dollars

First place: Joker (Heath Ledger) – «The Dark Knight»

Who's the best bad guy? In my opinion, it's Heath Ledger's Joker. Sure, Joaquin Phoenix's interpretation is more profound and tragic. But his Joker also has a whole film to establish and develop himself. Ledger's Joker doesn't. He only has 25 minutes.

That's certainly something. Ledger's 25-minute performance is so good that every film villain since then has had to put up with being compared to Ledger's anarchic «clown prince of crime» – and usually loses out in the process. Sir Michael Caine, who plays Batman's butler Alfred Pennyworth in the «Dark Knight» trilogy, agrees:

The story behind Caine's enthusiasm goes like this: Caine, who had never met Ledger before, was so shocked by Ledger's Joker performance in the penthouse scene that he forgot his lines. Alfred doesn't say a single word in that scene – that wasn’t what the original script said.

Release date in cinemas: 16. July 2008
Worldwide earnings: 1.004 billion dollars

Do you agree with my list? Who did I leave out? Let me know by commenting below. Then we can discuss further.