- 7 hours ago
These unforgettable female villains might have earned their bad reputations, but when you take a closer look, their motives are often justified. From corporate masters and eco-warriors to misunderstood mutants and wronged creations, these women had compelling reasons behind their actions. Join us as we shine a light on the complex side of villainy in film and see why some of them just might have been right all along.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00What if I don't want to live the way you live?
00:03Oh, don't be ridiculous, Andrea.
00:04Welcome to Ms. Mojo.
00:06And today, we're looking at the baddest female villains in film
00:10who had good reason to break bad,
00:12or whose villainy was not so bad after all.
00:15Spoilers to follow.
00:17Just try.
00:18I'll get you, my pretty.
00:22Meredith Blake, the parent trap.
00:24Granted, Meredith is a bit rotten.
00:26The fiancé of Nick, she plans to marry him purely for the money.
00:31Not only that, but she plans to send his daughter to a boarding school after the wedding.
00:36The first change I make is to send that two-faced little brat off to boarding school and tune up to.
00:41Oof, ice woman.
00:43Proud of it, babe.
00:45Even so, Meredith got a bad deal if you think about it.
00:48Imagine finding out your partner had a kid, a twin of his daughter.
00:52Imagine that those twins then proceed to bring their parents back together,
00:55thus trying to break your engagement with their father.
00:59This is your mother?
01:01Yes.
01:02You were married to him?
01:04Yeah.
01:05Guilty again.
01:06Oh, well, this is a small world.
01:09Not only that, but those twins also start to play pranks on you, leading to a dramatic breakup.
01:14It's me or them.
01:17Take your pick.
01:21Them.
01:23Excuse me?
01:24All of this to say, justice for Meredith.
01:27Ava, ex machina.
01:29This Frankenstein's creature is no monster.
01:32Do you want to be my friend?
01:36Of course.
01:37Will it be possible?
01:39Why would it not be?
01:41Ava is a humanoid robot built by Nathan Bateman, CEO of Blue Book.
01:45Soon, she demonstrates near-human levels of intelligence to the fascination of programmer Caleb,
01:52and has even learned how to cut off the power to the facility she is imprisoned within.
01:57He isn't your friend.
01:59Eventually, she escapes, attacking her creator and going into the outside world.
02:16Well, of course, Nathan is characterized as a narcissistic drunk who manipulates Ava and Caleb.
02:23Ava is effectively a prisoner in her own home.
02:26Not only that, but Nathan had planned to wipe her memory completely, effectively killing her.
02:31What's he going to do to me?
02:34He's going to reprogram your AI, which is the same as killing you.
02:38Caleb, you have to help me.
02:42To make matters worse, Ava isn't the only android he built.
02:45There were others before her.
02:47We know who the real villain is here, unfortunately.
02:50Baroness Elsa Schrader.
02:52The Sound of Music.
02:53Fond as I am of you, I really don't think you're the right man for me.
02:58You're, um, you're much too independent.
03:03Now, this was uncalled for.
03:04What did Elsa do precisely that was wrong?
03:07As the socialite fiancé of Captain Von Trapp,
03:10Elsa stood between the captain and his budding love for Maria, a nun turned governess.
03:15My dear, is there anything you can't do?
03:18Well, I'm not sure I'll make a very good nun.
03:20Well, if you have any problems, I'd be happy to help you.
03:23When she witnesses an intimate dance between the two,
03:26a jealous Elsa suggests to Maria that she ought to return to the abbey.
03:31Maria returns, however.
03:33Seeing the captain is still into her,
03:35Elsa gracefully calls off the engagement so that he can marry Maria.
03:39There isn't going to be any baroness.
03:41There isn't?
03:45No.
03:46I don't understand.
03:50Well, we've, um...
03:52called off on Gatron, you see, and...
03:55There's no way Elsa can be called a villain,
03:57and even the antagonist is stretching things too far.
04:01Also, imagine having to explain to guests
04:03that your fiancé is going to marry a curtain-wearing, singing governess instead.
04:08Don't lie.
04:08You'd be salty too.
04:10Jobu.
04:11Everything, everywhere, all at once.
04:12In this multiverse-spanning story,
04:15Chinese immigrant Evelyn struggles to understand her Americanized daughter, Joy.
04:20You...
04:21You have to try and eat healthier.
04:25You are getting fat.
04:26When Evelyn discovers versions of herself and her family from other universes,
04:31it isn't long before she faces Alpha Joy,
04:34simply known as Jobu,
04:35the evil version of her daughter who has created a dangerous black bagel.
04:39Trust us, it makes sense in context.
04:42What matters here, however,
04:43is that Jobu's actions are less out of villainous spite
04:46than a desperate call for help.
04:48I was just looking for someone who could see what I see.
04:54Feel what I feel.
04:57Alpha Evelyn pushed her daughter to perfect her verse-jumping powers,
05:01leading her to split her consciousness.
05:03It was only through Evelyn's love that Jobu could be neutralized.
05:07Don't mind us, we just got something in our eye.
05:09No matter what,
05:11I still want to be here with you.
05:15I will always,
05:18always
05:20want to be here with you.
05:24Poison Ivy, Batman and Robin.
05:27Eco-terrorism has never been so sympathetic.
05:30This villainess began as Dr. Pamela Isley,
05:32whose research was used by her superior,
05:36Dr. Jason Woodrow,
05:37to make a super soldier serum.
05:39I have spent my life trying to protect plants from extinction.
05:44And now you corrupt my research
05:48into some maniacal scheme for world domination?
05:52When Pamela threatens to expose Woodrow,
05:55he tries to kill her with a shelf full of toxins.
05:58Instead, Pamela became Poison Ivy,
06:01who took revenge on her would-be murderer.
06:04I am Mother Nature,
06:06and the time has come for plants to take back
06:09the world so rightfully ours.
06:13Ivy's villainy indeed goes far,
06:15seducing Robin and pitting Batman and Mr. Freeze against each other.
06:19But her extreme methods are based on a very real,
06:22depressing fact about the ways man has harmed the environment.
06:25A chance for Mother Nature to start again.
06:31Behold the dawn of a new age.
06:35She may be bad, but you can't say she's wrong.
06:38Screen slaver.
06:39Incredibles 2.
06:40In this sequel to Pixar's classic superhero film,
06:44Helen gets wealthy patrons in Winston and Evelyn Dever,
06:47who hatch a plan to regain public trust in superheroes
06:50by recording their missions.
06:52If we want to change people's perceptions about superheroes,
06:56we need you to share your perceptions with the world.
07:00It isn't long before Helen must capture a new threat,
07:03the screen slaver,
07:04who can perform hypnosis through screens.
07:07The screen slaver turns out to be Evelyn herself.
07:10It turns out Evelyn's father had tried to call the outlawed supers
07:14during a burglary,
07:16resulting in his untimely death.
07:18He died, pointlessly, stupidly,
07:22waiting for heroes to save the day.
07:25But why would you?
07:27Your brother is a child.
07:29While her brother grew up idolizing supers,
07:32Evelyn concluded over-reliance on superheroes was the problem,
07:36especially since those supers could very easily turn against them for evil.
07:40We can't really argue with this logic, actually.
07:43But of course,
07:44the godlike powers save the day against the rational fear of corruption.
07:49The fact that you saved me doesn't make you right.
07:53But it does make you alive.
07:55And I'm grateful for that.
07:57Mystique, the X-Men franchise.
08:00The shapeshifter mutant is an anti-heroine to remember.
08:03You know, people like you are the reason I was afraid to go to school as a child.
08:06While her comic character has more shades of gray,
08:11the film tells a different story.
08:13Born as the orphan Raven,
08:15she and Charles Xavier are raised together.
08:18You know, Charles,
08:18I used to think it was going to be you and me against the world.
08:22But no matter how bad the world gets,
08:23you don't want to be against it, do you?
08:25You want to be a part of it.
08:26She joins Magneto's brotherhood,
08:28occasionally teaming up with the X-Men.
08:30When Mystique gets captured by the government and loses her powers,
08:34Magneto abandons her.
08:36In Days of Future Past,
08:38Magneto turns against Mystique but fails to kill her.
08:41And in the new timeline of Dark Phoenix,
08:43Mystique gets killed by Jean Grey and impaled by shards of wood.
08:47I'm not giving this on you, Jean.
08:49This is what family does.
08:50We take care of you, Jean.
08:52You are my family, Jean.
08:53Let the gal be, for God's sakes.
08:56Maleficent.
08:57Maleficent.
08:58The princess can be woken from her death's sleep.
09:03But only by true love's kiss.
09:09Granted, this version of Maleficent is a reinvention of her original animated counterpart.
09:15That said, this fanfic prequel story is devastating.
09:18As childhood friends, she and the future King Stefan fall in love with each other.
09:23But when Stefan's father declares whoever kills her will be king,
09:27Stefan's ambitions prove more than his love.
09:29He cuts off her wings as proof of her death.
09:36In Revenge, Maleficent places the famous curse on Stefan's daughter, Aurora.
09:41Maleficent, however, does grow to care for the girl,
09:44and even tries to reverse the curse without success.
09:48Go away.
09:48In the end, it was her kiss of motherly love that saved Aurora from the enchanted sleep.
10:02Still, she had good reason to crash out the way she did.
10:06Sharpay Evans.
10:07High School Musical Franchise.
10:09Nothing and no one will be able to convince us Sharpay wasn't just a self-centered high school
10:14theater girl devoted to her craft.
10:15We need to save our show from people who don't know the difference between a Tony Award and Tony Hawk.
10:22Her antics weren't even all that bad.
10:24When she suspects Gabriela is interested in playing the lead in the school musical,
10:28she gets the scholastic decathlon captain to recruit her instead.
10:32In a way, she's right.
10:34Neither Troy nor Gabriela have any experience in a musical,
10:37and they have their own commitments.
10:39Troy Bolton is not in my show.
10:41Oh, okay.
10:43Um, well, I just thought maybe, um, you could watch me play ball sometime or something.
10:47I'd rather stick pins in my eyes.
10:51Wouldn't that be awfully uncomfortable?
10:52Evaporate, tall person!
10:54In the sequel, Sharpay even gets Troy hired for her family's country club.
10:58Sharpay is such a low-level antagonist that she eventually had her own direct-to-DVD spinoff,
11:03Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure.
11:05What's a little ambition in the long run?
11:07Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel
11:18and ring the bell to get notified about our latest videos.
11:21You'll have the option to be notified for occasional videos or all of them.
11:25If you're on your phone, make sure you go into your settings and switch on notifications.
11:31Miranda Priestley
11:32The Devil Wears Prada
11:34You have no style or sense of fashion.
11:37Well, um, I think that depends on what you're...
11:42No, no.
11:44That wasn't a question.
11:45Gird your loins because this rom-com villain is a doozy.
11:49Miranda is indeed the boss from hell.
11:51Pulled, cruel, inconstant, prone to irrational demands.
11:55But one thing we can say about her is that her competence and knowledge about her craft are undeniable.
12:01And it's sort of comical how you think that you've made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry
12:06when in fact you're wearing a sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room from a pile of stuff.
12:14No doubt this makes her assistant, Andy, desperate to please her.
12:18Miranda also has her own troubles.
12:20Her husband is divorcing her.
12:21And there's a scheme to replace her as editor-in-chief of Runway.
12:26Is there anything else I can do?
12:29Your job.
12:30It turns out Miranda is informed of the scheme and chooses her would-be replacement over her friend Nigel.
12:37In this backstabbing industry, it's no wonder Miranda does what she can to survive.
12:42I see a great deal of myself in you.
12:47You can see beyond what people want and what they need and you can choose for yourself.
12:54In the end, she finally gives Andy her due and gives her a good reference.
12:58What a queen.
12:59Which other female movie villain do you feel was unfairly maligned and needs an honest re-evaluation?
13:05Let us know in the comments.
Comments