Time for a (spoiler-filled) look back at the year in movie villains. Who were 2013’s master baddies?
Alien (James Franco) in “Spring Breakers”
He’s got a better grill than Robert De Niro and way more tats than Dame Judi Dench. Why not an Oscar nomination for the weirdly menacing Franco as the rapper-gangster who seduces a quartet of college cuties in bikinis to join his posse and get up to some sick s - - t? True, the movie was widely despised, but Franco’s Scarface wannabe was the best thing in it.
SeaWorld (as itself) in “Blackfish”
The amusement park’s treatment of captive orcas, who come across as despondent wrecks who lash out at humans because they’ve been mistreated so badly, has led to an ongoing round of boycotts by musical acts including Willie Nelson, Barenaked Ladies, Heart and Trisha Yearwood. All of them backed out of plans to perform at SeaWorld after the documentary aired on TV.
Muse (Barkhad Abdi) in “Captain Phillips”
Born in Somalia but later a resident of Minneapolis who learned English watching “Seinfeld,” Abdi is chillingly focused as the lead terrorist in this seafaring adventure about Somali pirates who hijack a container ship while demanding ransom. Abdi wasn’t even an actor — he was driving a limo — when he saw a segment on the local news about a casting director seeking Somali performers for the film.
Khan (Benedict Cumberbatch) in “Star Trek Into Darkness”
The year of Cumberbatch (he was also in HBO’s “Parade’s End,” “August: Osage County,” “12 Years a Slave” and “The Fifth Estate,” while supplying the voice of the dragon in “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug”) really got rolling when his calculating Captain Kirk tormenter Harrison turned out to be a genetically engineered superman better known as Khan.
Holly Jones (Melissa Leo) in “Prisoners”
In an exhausting, torture-filled drama about an ordinary man (Hugh Jackman) driven to extremes while searching for his missing daughter, Leo provided one of the best reveals of the year. Her character, apparently the suffering stepmom of the man thought to be the kidnapper, turned out to be herself the mastermind of a series of depraved crimes going back a shockingly long period of time.
