Movie "villains" who you kinda, sorta actually rooted for...

Adrian Veidt from Watchmen.

Oh wait, he won.

Cercei, when she blew up the sept.

Hannibal Lecter.

Albedo said:

Hannibal Lecter.

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That's a great one. Especially in the film Hannibal. F Ray Liotta. And Gary Oldman.

Magneto's is great. Adrian Veidt is right.

I'll add Peter Cushing's Baron Frankenstein from the Hammer films. If the stupid townsfolk would just leave him be, he'd solve all of mankind's problems sooner or later.

Is King-Kong the villain in King-Kong? I always root for Kong.

Achilles in Troy. He was not the main villain, merely a weapon used by Agamemnon and Menelaus. He was the one warrior who bucked the evil of the throne.

mrsmig said:

HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

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Another great one! Definitely one of the most melancholy death scenes of any screen villain.

Robert DeNiro's character in the Meet the Parents series -- maybe he's more an antagonist than a villain, but I'm always rooting for him. Ben Stiller is a putz.

Zira from The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride. Her pride and her babies are starving, all because Simba wouldn't have Scar's loyalists. I mean, the hyenas killed him, he was merely defending himself and his family, so I'm sure he could have talked instead of exiling them. No wonder she wanted him dead. She actually had every right to invade and fight as her and her family's bare survival depended on it.

Mr. Joshua. Okay, I don't exactly root for him because I would never root against Murtaugh and Riggs, but I do secretly hope he gets away. It is the Gary Busey toothy, crooked smile thing. He really is a very accomplished actor, something it is easy to forget when you see him on a talk show. As for Mr. Joshua, I find the character fascinating. Pure evil but a goofy, almost engaging evil.

I usually avoid action movies at all costs but the late mr. shakey was a great fan. I used to tag along to the cinema just for the hand holding but a couple of the films he chose were a lot better than I expected.

His taste in comedy was even worse--except for that idiot fishing movie with Glover and Pesci. I come from a family of male fishing morons. Some of those scenes were fairly close to fishing reality as I remember it. But it was a comedy of mr. shakey's, his very favorite of all time, that introduced me to Gary Busey. I don't have time to Google for the title this a.m. but in the final scene Busey's character crashes a hang glider through a stained glass window to prevent a wedding. He also tries to play tennis in a pair of cowboy boots. --s6

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor: The Mummy of course.

The Lord of Darkness from the Tom Cruise stinker movie Legend. He was teh Sex! Poor Tom Cruise in his furry underpants was completely out of his league.

Jason.

Tom Hank's character in Road to Perdition. Although he's a paid killer, he is a decent man.

Martin Brundle in The Fly II. He didn't ask for any of that to happen to him. But it did, and he took his vengeance in a truly epic fashion.

Khan - as in Wrath of

Don't know if anyone's mentioned it already but I'd have to go for Neil McCauley, Robert De Niro's character in Heat.

Despite being a cold professional who lives a fairly spartan existence, there's great deal of loneliness at the very core of the performance that makes him enormously sympathetic. Even when he gives that line about walking away, it sounds as much like he's trying to convince himself of it as he is outlining his philosophy.

talktidy said:

Khan - as in Wrath of

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Both Khans. They had points.

What about films where the MC IS the villain? Just watched What Women Want with Mel Gibson, and he starts out in the movie as a chauvinist plotting to ruin the FMC's career, but over the course of the film he changes for the better.

C'mon, no one's mentioned Loki yet?

Twick said:

C'mon, no one's mentioned Loki yet?

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What am I, invisible?

Myrealana said:

I haven't necessarily been rooting for Loki to win in the Marvel movies, but I have certainly been hoping for him to be redeemable.

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*bump* Oops, sorry, I didn't see you there...