In honor of the recent release of
'Skyfall', here is the first of a series of blog posts where I honor
the best and worst of the James Bond franchise. First, let's start
off with the many villains that Bond has faced throughout the 23 EON
Bond films. We will start off with everyone's favorite topic here on
the internet with the worst villains in franchise history.
5. Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric)
(Quantum of Solace)
I'm starting this
list off with the main villain of Daniel Craig's second Bond film,
Quantum of Solace. Of course, as most of you know, 'QoS' was a
disappointing follow-up to 'Casino Royale', and Greene is one of the
prime reasons for this. No, he is not the worst Bond villain ever but
there's nothing about him that really stood out.
4.
Emilio Largo (Adolfo Celi) (Thunderball)
Like 'QoS',
'Thunderball' was a weak follow-up to its predecessor or, in this
film's case, the three Bond films that came before it ('Dr. No',
'From Russia With Love', and 'Goldfinger') and once again, one of the
biggest problems with the film is its villain. Like Greene, this guy
really didn't stand out and just came off as a really generic member
of SPECTRE... but with an eye-patch. Yeah, there's nothing to say
after that.
3. Ernst Stavro
Blofeld (Donald Pleasence) (You Only Live Twice)
Sure, Blofeld may
be one of Bond's most famous villains, but his first full appearance
in a Bond film was rather lackluster. Of course, Blofeld first
appeared in 'From Russia With Love' and 'Thunderball', but his face
was never shown. It was 'You Only Live Twice' when he was completely
seen for the first time. For the record, the film does build up the
reveal pretty well, as he starts out with his face hidden like
before. However, once he is revealed, the filmmakers don't give him
anything to do. Thankfully this wasn't the last time we would see
Blofeld, but even if Donald Pleasence does do a good job as Blofeld,
the character's first role as the main antagonist of a Bond movie
could have been much better.
2.
Renard (Robert Carlyle) (The World is Not Enough)
Poor Robert Carlyle
is underused as the terrorist Renard in Pierce Brosnan's third Bond
movie. Like Blofeld, there's great buildup leading up to his first
appearance on screen, but then he ultimately becomes second fiddle to
the main villain Elektra King. Thankfully, King is a good enough
villain so that this movie wouldn't have two bad villains in one Bond
movie... unlike in an earlier Bond movie.
1.
General Georgi Koskov (Jeroen Krabbé)
and Brad Whitaker (Joe Don Baker) (The Living Daylights)
On the other hand,
'The Living Daylights' had two villains and neither of them were any
good. First off we have Koskov, who starts off as an apparent good
guy but is then revealed to be the villain... only problem is that I
don't really recall him being that threatening. The same is said for
Whitaker, who literally disappears from the movie altogether until
the end of the movie just so Bond can fight him. Their henchmen
Necros was more of a threat to Bond than they were. That is why these
two are the worst Bond villains in franchise history because not only
are both of them bad villains by themselves, they had to be in the
same movie.
And now we move on
to the other side of the spectrum as we look at the Top 5 best Bond
villains of all time.
5.
Alec Trevelyan (Sean Bean) (Goldeneye)
The man formerly
known as '006' is a great villain because this allows for some
really dramatic tension between him and Bond, due to how they were
once friends before his alleged death nine years before the main
events of Goldeneye. The only reason he isn't any higher is because
he literally led himself to his own demise. He had the perfect
opportunity to shoot Bond, but then he decides to just gloat about
how 'he was always better', giving Bond ample time to get away.
That's a lame way to go out, especially for a Bond villain as good as
him.
4. Red
Grant (Robert Shaw) and Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya) (From
Russia with Love)
Yes, in this list,
I consider Grant to be one of the main villains, even if he is only
supposed to be the henchman. Right from the beginning of the movie,
we see how much of a threat he poses to Bond and the filmmakers do a
great job at building up suspense for their final fight, which is one
of the best fights in the entire series. For a more traditional
'villain', there's Lenya as the fierce and demanding agent of
SPECTRE.
3.
Auric Goldfinger (Gert Frobe) (Goldfinger)
Gert
Frobe has undeniable presence in the role of gold-smuggler Auric
Goldfinger. Of course, we can't forget that classic line of his...
'no Mr. Bond, I expect you to die', which has to be the best line
from any Bond villain.
2.
Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem) (Skyfall)
Yes, the most
recent addition to James Bond's rogue gallery is certainly one of the
finest villains that the series has ever seen and of course, Bardem
is excellent in the role. In terms of his character, he's kind of
like Trevelyan, but I think that Silva was the better overall villain
for a few reasons. First off, his whole back story of being betrayed
by MI6 is more compelling and overall, his plan is stronger. He's
almost like the Joker from 'The Dark Knight' in how he is always one
step ahead of MI6 no matter what they do to try and stop him. Also,
in terms of how he went out, I'd say it's more dignified than how
Trevelyan went out.
1.
Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Telly Savalas) (On Her Majesty's
Secret Service)
While
Blofeld may have also been amongst the worst Bond villains of all
time in regards to his role in 'You Only Live Twice', he's the best
Bond villain of all time when it comes to his role in the sole George
Lazenby Bond film, 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service', and Telly
Savalas is easily the best actor to have ever played the role. Not
only is he given more to do than Pleasence, but you can't forget that
he had a key role in the murder of James Bond's wife Tracy, and I
still can't get over the fact that they never resolved this in any future
Bond films. That alone makes him the best Bond villain of all time.
NEXT
UP: THE BEST AND WORST BOND OPENING SEQUENCES
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