A couple LotR mentions already, but Andy Serkis as Gollum is actually most unliveupably to me.
Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley
Heath Ledger as Joker.
Rami Malek absolutely nailed Freddie Mercury. The side-by-side clips of the two are astounding.
Mike Myers as both Wayne and Austin Powers. He has a way of doing corny characters with soul, and that’s quite rare.
Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison.
Gene Wilder as Willie Wonka.
He was too angry. Not necessarily his fault (probably moreso the script/direction), but Wilder didn’t nail the character for me.
Bruce Campbell as Ash Williams in the ‘Evil Dead’ movies.
I fucking dare you to try to remake that with another actor.
Henry Cavill as Superman for me. Alan Ritchson as Reacher.
But
Well yes of course. But Cavill lived up to his role
Some great runner-ups mentioned here. Of course the answer is Dr. Frank-N-Furter, who also had one of the best character entrances ever.
Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday in Tombstone.
Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal the Cannibal
I thought the same,then i watched Mads Mikkelson in the tv series Hannibal and think he played the role even better.
They both do different parts of the character’s story super well. Its worth noting that SotL Hannibal is far more sinister feeling and Hopkins killed that. Mads plays a Hannibal who MUST be reasonable and hide his darker nature and it’s a much more subtle performance
Good answer
The fact that Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn isn’t on this list makes me sad.
Matthew Mcconaughey as Rust in True Detective S1. I’m desperately longing for a show that can live up to S1 with a character similar or better than Rust
Every character in that season was perfect. Even the very minor roles played by unknowns were all knocked right out of the park. The stars really aligned for that first season, and I am very much okay with that being a rare thing.
Heath Ledger as the Joker.
Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man.
I think Heath Ledger is the best possible version of that type of joker. I think Mark Hamill was amazing too though.
RDJ just is iron man though. Similar life paths and everything.