A great movie needs a great villain. Someone for the hero to stand off against so we can see how the great the hero really is. Some films get it right but even more don't seem to bother. They concentrate on the hero and just leave the villain to be a caricature. Here are some of the best movie villains.

Darth Vader is the daddy of them all. Darth has been impressing movie fans for generations. Lucas even made another three Star Wars films so we could see how he comes to be. Vader is so great because you can't see his face. When we are confronted with mystery our minds race to fill in the gaps leaving us with the coolest villain ever. Nothing that we see can compare to our imaginations. That is in some part why I think a lot of people were disappointed with the prequel Star Wars films. I can't mention Star Wars without mentioning the also awesome Emperor Palpatine and Darth Maul. With these two characters less is more. Their limited screen time means we don't get bored of them.

The Blair Witch is the ultimate in fear. For me anyway and I know quite a few people who agree. The Blair Witch is so scary because she is purely in our imagination. The film makes you think at some points that there might not even be a Blair Witch. You can't argue once the characters go missing though.

In the 2007 live action movie Megatron is realised as a monster of a villain. He is downright scary. Any Autobots who get in his way get ripped in half. What I like about Megatron in the movies is that he goes from an unstoppable juggernaut in the first film to a bit of a loser in the third one. Megatron seems to have one reason to be and that is conquest and power, take that away from him and he's nothing.

The Fallen is Megatrons leader and quite cool he is too. He is used far too sparingly in Revenge of the Fallen. We hardly get to see the original Decepticon at all but when we do he rocks out by showing us his ability to teleport and to levitate tanks, rocks and all sorts causing havoc as he goes.

In the first three X Men movies Magneto is played perfectly by Ian Mckellen. Magneto is an excellent villain because we can understand why he does what he does. He's not out for personal gain. He just wants to make sure that awful things don't happen to mutants. However, mix that hope with a dash of revenge and you've got a maniac who is quite happy to attempt to kill all humans at the end of X2.