Five Most Audience-Loathed Characters of Recent Cinema
It’s never the primary villain. And there aren’t any on this list. No, main antagonists are often adored (or at least revered) by audiences. And when people cheered when (SPOILERS) Voldemort was defeated, the Hunger Games ended, and Bella’s insatiable lust for Edward was satisfied, they cheered for our heroes.
But there were other times when the audience stood and applauded when awful, awful things became of awful, awful characters.
Beware: Spoilers ahead!
5. Severus Snape, Harry Potter Series
Just like Harry, Ron, and Hermione, we spent years and years just hating Professor Snape. Never sure which side of the fence he stood on, we couldn’t be sure, but we sure as hell couldn’t trust him. We found him helping us, hindering us, getting us into trouble, and saving us from danger.
Then we found out he was a Death Eater. And a member of the Order of the Phoenix. Other Death Eaters thought Snape was a double agent working for the Dark Lord, and we prayed he was a double agent working for the Order.
And then, at the end of the Half-Blood Prince, he kills our beloved headmaster, Professor Dumbledore. And did we ever hate him.
As we learned about the Deathly Hallows, Snape redeemed himself in our eyes, and there were those of us who were sorry we ever doubted him while others claimed to have known all along. And then there were those who read the books first and really did know all along.
4. Bellatrix Lestrange, Harry Potter Series
Whoa. This is turning into “Five Harry Potter Characters who Really Suck.”
But Bellatrix is on a whole different level from Snape. I mean, she killed two of our favorite characters. (Aren’t they all our favorites?) I would have expected this from Snape during some of his darker moments, or even Draco or Lucius. Though, Draco becomes kind of a little bitch in his later years. No, upon thinking about this further, Bellatrix does seem like the Joker-style crazy, murderous type.
Avada Kedavra! And Sirius Black dies at the Ministry of Magic. Trying to get a confession, Bellatrix carves the word “Mudblood” into Hermione’s arm. Then, moments later, as Dobby attempts to apperate Harry and friends out of the Malfoy Manner, Bellatrix throws her knife, and it apperates with them. Dobby dies in Harry’s arms.
And when Bellatrix barely misses Ginny Weasley with her killing curse, an enraged Molly Weasley steps up to fight. When Molly deals a deadly strike to Bellatrix, we remember the deaths of Sirius and Dobby, and the torture Hermione endured. And we remember all who have fallen at the hands of the Death Eaters, and my God, do we cheer.
3. Jane, Twilight Saga
A break from the Harry Potter universe brings us to youthful Jane. Youthful, obnoxious Jane. She’s one of the high-ranking members of the Volturi guard, and she is not to be messed with.
Her talent is the most-feared among vampire kind. She is gifted with the ability to torture her enemies by will alone, though she often accompanies it by simply saying, “Pain.” As she brings the opposition to their knees, other Volturi members can move in and make easy work of the then- incapacitated enemy.
Though the Volturi bring her along to ensure peaceful confrontation and to promote fear, that doesn’t mean she never uses her power.
And seeing her die in that fantasy fight scene in Breaking Dawn Part 2 was the best part of the entire movie franchise. I almost wish it really happened. Aro’s death was just a bonus.
I can deal with Severus & maybe even Bellatrix for her insanity, but Umbridge was a horrid twat.
I think JarJar holds the lifetime achievement on this category. As for Snape? Personally, I never doubted him from the start as Rickman always played subtle tough-love clues in there and his whole involvement in the Death Eaters always felt like a double-agent.
The only ones that come to mind right now are Saruman from Lord of the Rings, Biff from Back to the Future and Cypher from The Matrix.
I am still baffled by how anyone could believe that Snape was actually a traitor. I mean for god’s sake Rowling gave so many hints she might as well have shouted Snape is a good guy!
I didn’t hate Jar Jar at first, but then I started watching the Saga at least once a year when I was about 16. Boy, did he annoy me after I got older (though I still don’t hate the prequels for it).
Definitely hated Saruman. I also hated/felt sorry for Gollum, since we knew what he was up to the whole time.
Snape should not be on this list. Even if you were dense enough to believe he was actually a villain, Alan Rickman plays him so well you can’t help but love the character regardless.
This should be a “5 characters from books that got made into movies.” Honestly, you shouldn’t be able to include any of those on your list because they were all very popular books long before they were movies.
Here’s all the movie characters that should be on this list:
Jar Jar Binks and every character from the Twilight Saga. The end.
I have to agree with pretty much everyone that’s posted above me. Snape was awesome, even in the books, and Jar Jar Binks was the worst character ever created.
i love the fact thay your name is Jasper, and you are bashing Twilight.
If Umbridge had not made the list, it would have been flawed
she got top spot, so clearly this is a good list
no words for how much I hated her
I think one who should have been on her is Caius from Twilight, when he and Jane died i was like take that BITCHES!
There’s more books than harry potter, hunger games, and twilight, just sayin…
…”Young” Anakin — Jar Jar I could love to hate; the kid I just hated.
…any of the blow-dried, 3nd-tier cast during the X-Men films, whether “bad” or “good” (e.g., the Fire and Ice punks, etc). Fortunately they had little screen-time for me to develop full loathing.
…Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf ) in Indian Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
…Wil Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. — Like the Mutt Williams role in Indiy4, these characters weren’t deliberately written to be annoying, but the cast involved need IQ-transplants and acting lessons. Regrettably, none of them die, let alone horribly.
…While I can see why Umrbidge is given top (worst) honors on the list for being the perfectly-captured essence of every 1980s-onward student’s most loathed politically-correct asshole academic, I think there’s an even more repellant character in the Potter films (and one that didn’t make your list) — Aunt Petunia Dursley (Fiona Show), who makes Harry’s mundane muggle existence a ceaseless living hell. Watching her swell up and blow away shrieking was the most satisfying schadenfreude moment in decades of cinema.