Of our year-end awards, I think that the Pterodactyl is probably my favorite. Looking back on a year’s most badass characters is a good way to remind yourself of just good (or bad) a year was. Last year, Ryan Gosling’s Driver took it handily, but this year there’s much tougher competition, both literally and figuratively. There’s law-enforcers and law-breakers, time travelers, and even the one dude who can literally break Batman. It was really one hell of a year for awesome characters.
All of the nominees really are pterodactyls in their own right, but only one can truly represent Flixist’s official dinosaur.
It really had to be. While every single one of our five nominees was amazing, Dredd is the ultimate in badassery. Perhaps the best proof of that is the fact that Karl Urban gave one of the best performances of the year with nothing but his mouth. Tom Hardy may have been unable to act with anything but his eyes, but eyes are the window to the soul, so he can suck it. No, the real test of skill is being able to wear an eye-covering helmet for 90 minutes and still be amazing in every way.
His hand-to-hand fighting skills, like those of all but one person on this list, may not be particularly impressive, but his ability to use his fancy Judge-Gun thing for ultimate destruction is awesome and incredible. Like Dr. Shulz, he is a man of the law. Unlike Dr. Shulz, he is not fazed by the horrors of the actions of others. In fact, he isn’t fazed by anything.
And that’s why he’s our Pterodactyl. His pure commitment to justice is an inspiration to us all.
BRAWWWWWW
Bane – The Dark Knight Rises
Rama – The Raid: Redemption
Dr. King Schultz – Django Unchained
Old Joe – Looper
