3) The Dark Knight Rises
Whatever your take is on The Dark Knight Rises, there can be no denying that Tom Hardy makes for one hell of a villain. Almost completely freed of backstory – director Christopher Nolan allegedly filmed a potted history for TDKR‘s big bad, then removed it in editing – Hardy’s Bane is a total mystery aching with the suggestion of a troubling, warped past. It’s all in the eyes and, yes, in that occasionally unintelligible voice.
Trust Tom Hardy to create something so complex out of a super-villain who kills without a second thought. For all his imposing menace, his psychotic and duplicitous malice, Bane feels like a tortured soul who genuinely believes he’s doing the right thing. There’s no 2D villainy here – Bane is a comic book cartoon with life breathed into him by one of the most intelligent actors out there. Bane is a formidable, uncompromising beast, but one that still – amazingly – manages to elicit sympathy.