Batman Movie Villains, Ranked

In the comics, Bane is known not only for his superior strength but also for being highly intelligent. That isn’t the case in Batman and Robin. Bane is an inarticulate thug who mumbles incoherently.

Vulture says that Bane is a “crappy” villain.

CinemaBlend called Doomsday — Lex Luthor’s genetically engineered monster — a “big dumb thug… who couldn’t carry a movie himself.”

Blink and you might miss Slipknot, a mercenary who specializes in grappling and scaling. He’s killed after trying to escape from Colonel Rick Flag and Task Force X.

You can’t be that great of a villain if you take a dirt nap while failing to escape.

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje’s Killer Croc doesn’t get a lot of screen time in Suicide Squad, which makes him one of the lesser Batman villains.

An Australian villain who loves deadly boomerangs, Captain Boomerang doesn’t have much of a reason to exist in Suicide Squad.

He ditches the group early in the film, but it’s never explained why he returns for the final fight. Here’s hoping we’ll get more of his backstory in Suicide Squad 2.

An all-time awful performance, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s portrayal of Mr. Freeze is hilariously campy.

The Washington Post says that “despite evil agendas and a barrage of Bat puns… [Mr. Freeze] never seems powerful or dynamic.”

Before the Joker, Two-Face and Bane, there was Carmine Falcone in the Dark Knight Trilogy.

IGN believes that Tom Wilkinson is a “little bit over the top as Falcone.”

The evildoer in Justice League, Steppenwolf, is “easily the worst in recent memory. He’s just a big CGI cipher for ‘bad guy,’” according to Uproxx.

An archaeologist possessed by an ancient force, Enchantress (Cara Delevingne) turns into the big baddie in Suicide Squad.

Time Out London says “you might end up wishing for less of Delevingne, who winds up croaking like a chain-smoking granny.”

Jared Leto’s Crown Prince of Crime failed to live up to the high standards of past Jokers.

The Miami Herald says that Leto “plays the role in such a cartoonish manner, you wonder if he’s paying homage to Cesar Romero’s Joker from the campy 1960s TV show. He’s all googly-eyes and mugs.”

The Washington Post says Jesse Eisenberg’s performance as the eccentric CEO of LexCorp is a “hysterically pitched performance that resembles a gnat impersonating Heath Ledger.”

Known as the “Santa Claus of Gotham,” Shreck – played by Christopher Walken — is “an ultra-rich sleaze who’s like your worst nightmare of Donald Trump and Ross Perot rolled into one,” per the Orlando Sentinel.

Bane’s boss in The Dark Knight Rises, Talia Al Ghul wants to finish her father’s work. But her late heel-turn feels slightly forced.

While he gives a solid performance as Two-Face, Tommy Lee Jones “does his best to keep up” with Jim Carrey’s Riddler, according to the Austin Chronicle.

Don’t sleep on this animated film and its two sinister villains.

Featuring the cast of Batman: The Animated Series, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm is one of the better Caped Crusader movies — thanks, in part, to Mark Hamill’s creepy interpretation of the Joker.

The titular villain “basically looks like the grim reaper with a sickle gauntlet that has these cool smoke effects and disappearing acts,” says IGN.

The New York Daily News believes that Zach Galifianakis “pulls off the challenging role of the emotionally scarred, but sadistically vicious Joker” in this 2017 animation film.

Batman Forever isn’t one of the upper-echelon Batman flicks, sure, but Jim Carrey “thrives” in the role of the Riddler, per Austin Chronicle.

SF Gate added that “Carrey plays the Riddler and once he shows up, all the other actors might just as well go home.”

One of the few Hispanic supervillains in film, El Diablo (Jay Hernandez) “impresses” as the “fiery L.A. gang leader with a horrific backstory,” according to USA Today.

The Ringer’s Shea Serrano praised El Diablo for being “the most compelling character in the movie.”

The A.V. Club believes that Anne Hathaway’s Selina Kyle is “the most dynamic character in The Dark Knight Rises, a cloud of shifting allegiances who handles herself with a sleight-of-hand that’s both verbal and physical—and more dexterous than the titans doing battle.”

Along with Harley Quinn, Deadshot is one of the best parts of Suicide Squad. Will Smith does a stellar job of humanizing the for-hire assassin.

USA Today says Deadshot is “Smith’s best role in years — he gets to showcase some of Concussion‘s deep emotion but with that old Independence Day swagger.”

The Austin Chronicle described Cillian Murphy’s performance as “deliciously creepy.”

Usually an ally of the Caped Crusader, Superman becomes Batman’s nemesis in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. The epic clash is a fight for the ages — and yields a victory for the Dark Knight.

Oswald Cobblepot, aka the Penguin, is an umbrella-obsessed sociopath who is so grotesque that he’s pretty darn terrifying.

Time described the Penguin as “a funnier, more lithe and daring villain than [Jack] Nicholson’s Joker.”

Before Halle Berry’s Catwoman, Michelle Pfeiffer put on the latex as femme fatale Selina Kyle. Pfeiffer’s Catwoman steals the show from the Penguin.

Christian Science Monitor believes that Pfeiffer plays Catwoman “with a mixture of slinkiness, sophistication and sheer malice.”

Yes, he’s outshone by Heath Ledger’s Joker, but that doesn’t mean Two-Face isn’t a great villain.

“[Aaron] Eckhart does an especially good job as Harvey Dent, whose character is transformed by a horrible fate into a bitter monster,” according to the Chicago Sun-Times

Although Suicide Squad has been lambasted by critics, Margot Robbie’s portrayal of Dr. Harleen Quinzel is arguably the best part of the film.

The Seattle Times says “it’s Harley Quinn’s movie and everybody else in Suicide Squad is just a supporting character.”

In Batman Begins, Liam Neeson’s Ra’s Al Ghul recruits Bruce Wayne to join the League of Shadows.

“Neeson is commanding in the role of Wayne’s mentor, a sort of harsh version of Wayne’s own father,” says IGN.

Jack Nicholson’s portrayal of the Joker in Tim Burton’s Batman is “a masterpiece of sinister comic acting,” says Variety.

Nicholson nearly pulled off an insurmountable performance as the Clown Prince of Crime, but another Joker outdid him.

Heath Ledger’s Oscar-winning performance makes “previous Jokers feel like, well, jokes,” according to TV Guide.