Looking inside the Sauron Project - Page 4
© Michael Martinez
Well, the fanged skull imagery certainly implies the bad guy might have something to do with death. So maybe a good way to portray Sauron is as a death monger. Mordor might end up with lines of bodies impaled on stakes, like in "Bram Stoker's Dracula" or that other classic movie, "The Beastmaster". Now there's a lesson in how to define your villains. Have them stare stupidly at the sky as an eagle takes away the sacrificial child.
Probably the best screen villain to come along in my lifetime was Ian McDiarmid's Emperor from "Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi" (he's the other Ian according to Sir Ian McKellen in a recent e-post, not to be confused with the other Sir Ian, Sir Ian Holm who plays Bilbo in the movies). Interestingly, Sir Ian (McKellen) played a wonderful Bad Guy in "The X-Men", only Magneto isn't really all bad. He's just...drawn that way.
The difference between Magneto and Palpatine, however, is that Magneto didn't ask for his war. It was thrust upon him and all mutants by a fearful and ignorant (and perhaps jealous) "normal" humanity. Magneto takes on the role of a fanatical terrorist, someone who is fighting for his country and people, and not merely out to make a buck (or a name for himself).
Palpatine just wants power. Or maybe he's bored with power and he wants to use it. To control people, the universe, the stock markets. Palpatine is evil in ways that Magneto will never be, so Palpatine edges out Magneto despite a superb performance from The Man Who Would Be Gandalf.
Until we learn what Palpatine's motives are (and, to be honest, I hope we never do), he will be perhaps the greatest, sneakiest, most evil film villain ever to rule the dark screen. Think about it. He never stands around and explains his schemes to the good guys while their second string pulls the plug on his nefarious device. You could hear a pin drop in the theater when ole Palp reached down, clicked on a switch in his Imperial chair, and said, "You may fire at will, Commander!"
Ian McDiarmid just oozes slime, too. He can be so disingenuous, so manipulative. In "The Phantom Menace" his character had to contend with the fact that Queen Amidala had slipped away from his evil minion, Darth Maul, as well as the inept and cowardly Trade Federation's massive, overwhelming, superior force on their home planet of Naboo. She shows up on Coruscant and Palpatine now has to take a direct hand in matters as himself, not as Darth Sideous.
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