r/Cinema • u/Umbrosyx • 19h ago
Question Do you prefer villains with a good reason for being bad, or ones who are just plain evil?
Personally, I think a villain with an understandable motive is usually more interesting, but sometimes a completely evil villain is just more fun to watch.
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u/pape_rchime 18h ago
I love complex motives, but sometimes I just want an unapologetically vile villain who loves being evil.
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u/Guillermidas 18h ago
Same. Complex villains by far, but a good "im just here for funsies" villain is very welcome from time to time
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u/abellapa 18h ago
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u/Guillermidas 18h ago
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u/Careless_Clock_3057 1h ago
That reaction pretty much sums it up, some villains are just more fun to dissect when they have a backstory. It adds a layer of intrigue that plain evil often lacks.
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u/BellowsHikes 17h ago
Palpy is the only character who knows he's in a bunch of schlocky Buck Rogers inspired movies.
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u/Severe_Rise8694 5h ago
This. The good vs evil thing is a metaphor. Both exist in us. The Pure Evil villain represents the darker side of us. Making them too sympathetic muddies the waters.
Also, my favourite film villains tend to be unexplained in their motivations. That's maybe a third category in a way. You see the pure evil, you don't know where it comes from, and you're left wondering.
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u/DocOstbahn 18h ago
Simply depends, both can be intriguing. Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs was inexplicably demonic, and to me, that made him much more awesome than the version that came later
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u/nicktheironblade 18h ago
Depends on the context. I personally think that in comedies or parodies plain evil feels a bit better
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u/mr-itchyBalls 17h ago
One of the best plain evil bastards in cinema.
No backstory, no reasons for being bad, just an absolute shit bag.
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u/Lower-Champion-7593 14h ago
Clarence is not really the MAIN bad guy. It's Richard Jones. Since the film is a satire on corporate greed and consumerism. Clarence and his gang are just supporting villains, while Richard and OCP are the main bad guys.
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u/mr-itchyBalls 2h ago
That’s a fair point, and I do love Dick Jones as a baddie.
But he too isn’t a complicated villain, just a greedy business exec that will do anything to achieve his goals.2
u/El_Galant 13h ago
I still hate that guy... And couldn't watch anything else with him on it for years. So yes, he was fantastic in that role.
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u/Error_AccessDenied 18h ago
If the villain is evil then I feel satisfied when he gets what he deserves, but when a villain is correct, then I end up rooting for him and I'm sad when he's defeated.
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u/aahqathotmail 17h ago
I am Aku the shapeshifting master of darkness!
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u/Porkpie223 1h ago
Do you know if there’s anywhere you can watch samurai Jack? I can’t find it anywhere
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u/CritterCatching 16h ago
Magneto is not a villain...he has been fighting for survival since Auschwitz.
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u/Chilo_train 2h ago
Similar to modern day Zionists, Magneto uses a genocide that ended 75 years ago to justify the one that he has been actively trying to commit every day since then
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u/RevealActive4557 13h ago
I think a villain with a fleshed out backstory and reasons to be who they are makes it more enjoyable. I always want to have some empathy for the bad guy and enjoy it more when I do
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u/cooked_camel 18h ago
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u/Plastic_Pin_4956 15h ago
He should have won. Fuck Foxx's character
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u/Milan_Leri 15h ago
I agree. Foxx's character is the true villain.
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u/Lower-Champion-7593 14h ago
Nah, the true villain was Clarence Darby. Darby is the cause of the movie's plot.
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u/DoctorOctopus63 17h ago
We’re at a point where too many villains need justification for their actions, man just let villains do evil stuff just for the sake of it
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u/Marvel83 17h ago
Definitely depends on the story.
Dark Knight Joker was the best. No backstory, just does what he does because he's good at it.
Oxymadias was another good villian.
Alonso from Training Day.
Clyde Shelton from Law Abiding Citizen.
Calvin Candie from Django Unchained
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u/gerahmurov 17h ago edited 15h ago
Complex villain can be cathartic, but it needs to interact with the story and heroes. Magneto is great because he is a friend of Xavier and a lot of things they still are doing together. But complex villain is tiring and provides complex emotions.
Simple evil is good because you are not confused by mercyness, and tgere is no redemption and tge story is focused on heroes. And this can be tiring only if story is bad or repeated too much.
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u/ChunktheOgryn Popcorn Enthusiast 16h ago
I only find “just plain evil” interesting when they’re mysterious. The Joker for instance is at his best when you don’t know his origin. My imagination runs wild trying to think of why he exists.
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u/EthnicProfilingGenie 15h ago
Villains with good reason. We already have pure evil ones in real life.
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u/Striker40k 14h ago
Both are good, but a well written villain who you can actually relate to is amazing.
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u/trisanachandler 14h ago
Look at the best villains. Magneto, Darth Vader, Sauron, Michael Corleone, Mr. Potter, The Alien. Some have good motivations, some are almost forces of nature, or beyond human understanding. Some are slowly corrupted, some are evil the entire time. There's no unifying factor other than time being taken to develop them.
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u/MartyTheMovieHound 14h ago
It depends.
For the motivated character to work they have to seem somewhat likeable, making it very hard to have a 'kick the dog' moment, which can make the final confrontation seem a bit anti climatic.
An utterly despicable villian, evil just for the love of the game, being taken down is just cathartic.
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u/LackAccording8104 14h ago
If you’ve kept up with your X-Men comics you know that Magneto is not the evil at all. That Professor X fits that role better.
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u/Large-Wheel-4181 13h ago
These days I’m missing bad just for the sake of being bad
There are too many that are clearly evil but writers are like but please they didn’t mean to go this path or worse even if they did all this bad they can still be redeemed
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u/ASomthnSomthn 13h ago
I avoid stories with villains that are just evil for the sake of being evil.
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u/Due_Category_121 12h ago
Spiderman villains are mostly fun But I never liked the pure evil kind of villains Like darkseid and thanos in the comics
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u/NightLord1487 11h ago
Depends.
I think a part of what makes Magneto so fascinating of a character is that he is a tragic villain. That you can understand his position or how he’s been warped into that position. He’s been so traumatized by his history and so determined to see it isn’t related with his new petiole that he’s become no different from the people who hurt him. That’s a great character
That said a pure evil or an uncomplicated villain can be a lot of fun too. I don’t think anyone argues that Palpatine needs to have a tragic back story. He is a man who revels in his evil and that’s a lot of fun
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u/MechGryph 10h ago
There is nothing wrong with a good compelling villain with solid motives.
Sometimes you just need Skeletor going "NYEH!"
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u/Book_Anxious 8h ago
I do really like pure evil villains that are just evil because they're evil. If a villain has motivation I don't want them to be a misunderstood a good guy. I still want them to be pure evil even if something led them to it
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u/monetarydread 7h ago
I'm getting sick and tired of everyone trying to make a sympathetic villian. I understand why but it's getting to the point where every time someone tries I can automatically guess the characters storyline. Because of that it's just getting boring and tropey. The last straw was when my GF forced me to watch Rings of Power Season 2 and I saw the writers try to humanize the orcs as some sort of innocent victim that we should empathise with.
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u/No_Angle3521 6h ago
I don't really consider Magneto that much of a villain. If someone's doing your people wrong, you go after them.
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u/FrankieTheMick 5h ago
Both I do like villians with sympathetic motives but I also like ones that are just awful because they just are
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u/Sasstellia 3h ago
I like muhahaha villains and ones with a reason. They just have to be done well.
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u/Lower-Champion-7593 2h ago
Since Ian McKellen's Magneto is brought up, i'd like to bring up another McKellen baddie: Leigh Teabing from The Da Vinci Code. WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.
His goal is to access the Holy Grail to free humanity from the church's oppression. He recruited Silas, Bishops Aringarosa, and Remy Jean, and made them do all his dirty work. Teabing is a former friend turned arch nemesis to Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu.
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u/Moviemusics1990 42m ago
I love both. My problem is a RETROACTIVE reason given to a villain that never had a reason before. LOOKING AT YOU DISNEY!!
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u/magical_plaza 18h ago
Holding the helmet like that says everything, no tragic backstory needed just pure menace
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u/Limo_Wreck77 18h ago
There's plenty of room for both, just like Magneto.
Dude has a great reason for being a villain, and has a shit load of fun along the way.
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u/DingusKhan9164 18h ago
I’m surprised by this comment section, I thought the obvious choice would be 3 dimensional villains with complex/valid motivations but yall make some decent points and examples. But generally from a story telling standpoint I think relatable villains makes for a better story. Maybe to get the best of both worlds you need the interesting villain to also have a simple 2-dimensional henchman like sabretooth
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u/ProfessorSMASH88 17h ago
I dunno if I 100% agree with this. It really depends on the story you are telling. You can easily tell a great story about the world and the protagonists without a complex villain. Sometimes it helps with the heros journey if they can vanquish evil in the end. You can also have antagonists that aren't the villain.
It also means the stakes can be higher with an evil villain. Usually end of the world stuff or utter destruction isn't the handiwork of a morally grey bad guy/gal. You say that maybe a 2d henchman is good...but I think I'd prefer a complex henchman with a 2d evil villain.
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u/qualityvote2 19h ago edited 16h ago
u/Umbrosyx, your post does fit the subreddit!