Suprised that nobody has said Swordfish yet. Here is a movie where the bad guy actually wins in the end. Well worth watching.
I kept looking for the alternate ending for 'Law Abiding Citizen' where Clive hides the bomb somewhere not in plain view and blows up the mayor then gets away. Sadly, it was not to be, because Hollywood doesn't like letting the bad guy get away in the end. Call them weak or just plain stupid, they like letting law enforcement win against genius with motives.
Calling Darth Maul a villian is like calling the droids in episode 1 villians. It's just not true. If anyone is the villian of episode 1 it's the poor writing, anikin, jar jar binks and quag-on jin. If George Lucas learned anything from years of movie making he would have written Anikin to be a sidekick character like Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Instead we have a bumbling accidental hero who succeeds without knowing what is at stake and makes the movie worse for the experience. Jar Jar served to provoke everyone around him to hate the 'heroes' and be a bumbling fool. Quag-on was one of the most foolish jedi knights of all time and got himself killed in the process. Was darth maul supposed to be a villian? I just figured he was a jedi knight sent by the council to punish Quag-on for abusing his force persuade on everyone. Aside from dressing in black and wielding a light saber, he doesn't really strike me as a sith. He was written to have about as much of a personality as the droid army guys, which is to say none. Hell, the storm troopers in episode 4 have more personality, at least they go see movies.
As for the original trilogy alone empire, there are several indications of the evil the empire has wrought. All of the original trilogy happens on outer rim planets, meaning it's farther from the center of empire control, which is pretty extreme. Han discusses how difficult smuggling is under the empire due to random searches. Not that random searches are all that evil, but it doesn't help the aura of oppression feeling the empire is imparting. They dissolve the Imperial senate to give exclusive power to the emperor. Now we are going towards Rome, where the corrupt emperors rules with reckless abandon and committed great atrocities. Blowing up an inhabited planet to demonstrate the power of their new weapon... been said before, but pretty evil. Vader force chocking all his admirals: just a personal thing, but it earns him some dark side points, but also proves that the empire doesn't allow for failure in their military, which is another act of evil on their part. Ordering the fleet to pursue into an asteroid field despite the odds that most of the fleet would get pulverized for minimal reward: is that evil or just plain stupid? In the end a single bounty hunter found where they were going and sent the info to Vader. Did they need to put the fleet at risk when independent contractors would willingly go into danger for them? I think not. The empire changes their deal with Lando whenever they feel like it and take over in the end despite getting everything they ask for. Return of the Jedi doesn't have much in it to prove the empires evil. Sending AT ATs to take down a bunch of furry natives was perfectly justified. If anything, the rebellion could have been seen as evil because they were gonna blow up a space station without defenses and under construction with engineers and construction crews onboard. That's pretty sick!
Somebody mentioned One piece. The TV series bad guys are all the worst brands of bullies. Arlong sets up camp and forces everyone to pay 100k a month or die. He's a racist who believes that fishmen are the master race and humans should serve them or die. Crocidile sets the stage for a civil war and puts a bomb where they are fighting so both sides will die. Eniel sets himself up as a god and uses his men to dominate the sky island. The world government and nobles are perhaps some of the most evil individuals to ever show up in an anime. The marines back these ass-hats and do things like blow up an entire island to kill a nine year old girl. Every filler villian and half the movie villians I can kinda relate to because their plan involves hurting some annoying little brat. The only time the brats show up is during the filler, which is some of the worst filler out there. Just plain bad filler and stupid kids that ruin the series (almost as bad as naruto episode 135-219).
