• 23Dec 09

  My Top Five Favorite Movie Villains + World of Warcraft

  I'm not going to lie, I watch a lot of movies. And something I noticed with many movies is that the villains are usually the most interesting characters. Whether it's their looks, their personality, their interesting backstory, or in some cases, all of the above, the villains are typically the guys you want on screen most of the time, and it's always a shame when the hero brings their epic reign of terror to an end, forcing us to continue the rest of the movie without them. Here's my top five favorite villains. (spoilers ahead)

  5. The Joker The Dark Knight

  

  Obviously Heath Ledger's outstanding performance elevated The Dark Knight's Joker far above his rather silly comic book inspiration, with a portrayal of the character that is violent, disturbing and, at times, quite funny. He provides the true menace for The Dark Knight while also posing as the comic relief. But it's not just Heath Ledger's portrayal of the character that makes The Joker so interesting. This version of The Joker is a much dirtier take on the character, which greasy, ugly hair, dirty face paint and an disturbingly interesting take on the character's long red lips. He's a perfect example of a character who you want on the screen at all times, and if this Joker got a whole movie all about him, it would possibly out-****The Dark Knight. Not just because it's more Joker, but because it would let us see the character without being exposed to Christian Bale's silly performance as Batman.

  4. General Grievous Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

  

  He didn't get a whole lot of screen time outside of the opening sequence and his epic duel with Obi Wan, and he was incapacitated far too early into the film (about 1/3 of the way through) but what we saw of General Grievous was enough to show us just how much of a badass he really is. Four arms, four Lightsabers, and an awesome look to boot. I would have gladly had him kill Obi Wan and take the spot as the main character for the rest of the film, but sadly, George Lucas didn't agree with me. Fortunately, we saw enough of him to be able to recognize him as one Star Wars' greatest villains.

  3. Captain Nero Star Trek (2009)

  

  Again, Nero didn't get enough screen time, and his death was rather untimely, but he still looks awesome, right? And he has a very interesting backstory. His main goal is revenge, and he'll go to great lengths to achieve it. At times I even felt sorry for him, but more than anything, I just wanted to see him kick ass. Sadly, we rarely saw him fight, with his minions doing most of his dirty work and most of the film's action sequences revolving around other enemies. In my opinion he was a very underappreciated character by J.J. Abrams, but he's still totally awesome.

  2. Nosferatu Nosferatu (1922, 1979)

  

  Some might argue that Nosferatu isn't really a villain, so much as he is a misunderstood monster, but in my opinion, anyone who sucks peoples' blood, locks people in castles and then brings the plague to villages is evil. That said, Nosferatu is on this list because in addition to starring in two fantastic movies, he's also a character that you will feel sympathetic for while at the same time realizing is evil. He's an ugly monstrosity that appears to be unlikable but ends up being one of the most interesting villains of all time.

  1. Davy Jones Pirates of the Caribbean 2 & 3

  

  In my opinion, the coolest movie villain of all time. There are so many reasons why Davy Jones deserves this spot. For one, he looks awesome. I mean come on, just look at this guy. Essentially a combination of Cthulhu and a human, Davy Jones is the captain of The Flying Dutchman, a barnacle covered ship filled with an undead crew of zombie-like fish men. If not for Davy Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3 would hardly even be worth watching. He provides a villain that is both likable and hateable at the same time. He's a very evil character, but every now and then there are glimpses of sadness in his eyes and voice. He's rather complex, and while his interesting story isn't explored enough in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, he's still my favorite movie villain of all time.

  Moving on...

  Recently I got the World of Warcraft Battle Chest and started my own account. As of this writing I'm a level 11 Draenei Paladin, and I'm really enjoying the game so far. I've tried every race and enjoyed most of them immensely, but in the end I decided that the draenei are both the most cool and the most fun. If anyone knows where I can get some shoulder pads or cool armor that I can wear at my current level, your help would be very much appreciated.

  • Posted Dec 23, 2009 6:23 pm PT
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• 7Dec 09

  Grand Slam Tennis is the most frustrating game I've ever played

  I could go on a huge rant about how infuriatingly inaccurate the game's controls are, or how my character constantly fumbles when I'm trying to make him swing, or how the game is extremely punishing with no tutorial, but instead, I'll just leave you with this: My opponent served the ball and hit the net. The ball fumbled onto my side, rolling, and my opponent got the point.

  • Posted Dec 7, 2009 11:15 am PT
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• 29Nov 09

  Back to the Battlefield

  It's been a while since I've played Battlefield: Bad Company. I got stuck at a rather frustrating firefight in the single player campaign, and since I don't have a Gold membership I wasn't able to play the multiplayer. Fortunately, the Bad Company 2 beta is on the PlayStation 3, so I don't have to use my brother's account every time I wanna play. Based on what little content the beta has to offer (one map and one game mode) Bad Company 2 is largely the same as its predecessor, yet for all their similarities, Bad Company 2 is miles better. Everything from the controls to the weapons to the kit customization is tuned well, and the absolutely gigantic map and wide range of vehicles make the multiplayer feel like a long, epic set-piece battle.

  The last Battlefield game I played was 1943, which I played a couple months ago (By the way, I totally recommend 1943, as my reviewshould make quite clear). Seeing as I haven't played the series in a couple of months, I had to get used to getting shot out of nowhere and constantly getting blown up by tanks. I became frustrated with the game quite quickly and stopped playing for a couple of days. Fortunately, GiantBomb did a quick-look of the beta, which encouraged me to try it one more time. Not only did I kick ass, but I unlocked some sweet new weapons and quickly became addicted to the game.

  I started playing as the Assault **** After all, I'm the kind of guy who wants to blow people to bits every chance I get. I unlocked several weapons and mods, and then tried my hand at the Engineer. Not only did the rocket launcher score me huge points (I got 320 from blowing up a tank), but I unlocked some seriously awesome new weapons as well. To be more specific, the SCAR. As I said, I'm the kind of guy who wants to run in guns blazing, so I haven't tried any other ****s yet, but I do plan to at some point.

  Most of the time my teams have been pretty uncooperative, running around and doing their own things, but in one game I found myself in an excellent squad. I spawned on my squad mate, and before I knew it, my whole squad was together and we were blasting bad guys and planting bombs. Whenever I was felled, my comrades revived me and I killed that guy shooting at their backs. We planted a bomb inside a crashed train and held ourselves up inside, blasting away at opponents to keep them at bay. The cooperation was amazing, and it became quite clear to me that Bad Company is at its best when everyone is working together.

  The beta runs pretty well, but it's obviously not a finished product, so there is some slowdown and very rare lag. Graphically the game looks identical to the first, but without the grain from the first game all the graphical flaws like aliasing, texture issues and other visual issues are quite clear. It's still a good looking game, but it's far from cutting edge, and in this beta there's a ton of pop-in, including trees that don't appear until you're mere feet away from them.

  I'm loving Bad Company 2 so far. If you don't have a key yet, you need to get one and join this army. It's almost identical to the first game, yet it's immensely better. It's easily the most fun I've had online in months.

  • Posted Nov 29, 2009 6:52 pm PT
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