The Villains We Love To Hate

Bad guys.
Everybody loves a good villain. Someone who can match, if not even over-power the hero can keep the story moving, and give the hero's journey some more meaning - beating this guy is important, and a challenge. Sometimes, if the villain is dastardly enough, he can almost become the selling point of the whole movie - The Dark Knight's Joker comes to mind, where Heath Ledgers performance became the main reason to see the movie, even earning him a posthumous Oscar award for best supporting actor.
Of course, James Bond is no stranger to great villains. The new "Bond villain" is as highly anticipated as the new "Bond girl," or in some years, the new Bond. But how does this years main baddie compare to the evil doers of other recent summer blockbusters?
For this post, I'm going to compare Skyfall's villain to those from The Amazing Spider-Man, The Dark Knight Rises, and The Avengers - arguably three of the most anticipated "good vs. evil" movies of the year

Lets start with, in my opinion, the weakest of the bunch. The Amazing Spider Man's villain was The Lizard. He was a guy who turned into a big lizard and wanted to make everybody else into big lizards, and do so as chaotically as possible. Not much character, not much development, just a big lizard trying to make things bad in the city. Next!

Loki from The Avengers was a bit more developed. His main goal is to, of course, take over the world, and enslave the entire human race to do his bidding. Though it's as generic of a reason as you can get, his jealousy of brother Thor certainly adds some depth to it. He was always looked down upon in favor of his brother, so his ability to take over an entire planet would show his capabilities. Nothing deep or complicated, but a good enough comic book villain for a good comic book movie.

Bane definitely had a lot to live up to in The Dark Knight Rises after the incredible performance of The Joker in 2008. Unlike the other two baddies up above, Bane is a bit more relatable, especially in the wake of stuff like Occupy Wall Street. At his core, Bane is a revolutionary, and a showman. Rather than taking apart Gotham City, he invites the city to do it for him. "Take back your city," he cries, until the streets are filled with chaos and disorder, all by it's own hands. Of course along the way he doesn't mind blowing up a football stadium or two. Now towards the end (SPOILERS, of course), he does loose some credibility, as he is revealed to be the sidekick of Talia Al' Ghul, the red herring main villain of the movie, and especially when it's revealed he has an unstoppable nuke ready to wipe Gotham City off the map, no matter what it's citizens did. So, in the end, he gets a little flat, but overall Bane shows that villains don't always have to be motivated by nothing more than "evil"

Which brings us right back to Skyfall, and Raul Silva. This guy is fantastically interesting, a bit of a change from Bond villains who just want money or power. Silva's motive is simple, but firm - revenge on MI6's leader, M. Almost a picture of a future James Bond, Silva, a top agent in his prime, was given up by MI6 to the Chinese government in exchange for six hostages. Ever since then, he's made it his goal to get revenge on M, in as flamboyant and showboat-ey a manner as possible. Leading Bond and the gang on an insanely wild goose chase throughout London and then some, Silva's fascination stems from his simple desire - to watch the world burn. Much like The Joker, villains who are simply sadistic and narrow minded are incredibly fun to watch. They let us escape from well minded society to watch "true evil" do it's crazy, messed up work.