Any thoughts on Don Rafael Monterro(the main villian)?

I found he was unusually three-dimensional for a villain in this sort of film. It's made clear twice that he isn't simply an evil man like Captain Love, during the prologue he makes sure no children will have to witness his actions, and when he and Love are discussing how they should cover their tracks he questions if Love really wants to kill all the workers when they blow up the mine.

Bump.

"Fluoride doesn't prevent tooth decay. It does render teeth detectable by spy satellite." -JL

Don Raphael is a surprisingly well thought out villian.

There was a comment M Night Shyamalan made about a character in Hitchcock's 'Strangers on a Train' that fits well here. The character may be evil, insane or corrupt, but they have their own sense of morals.

Don Raphael, while fairly immoral regarding what he considered to be strictly business and self-preservation, did have empathy and heart.

For example: requesting that children be removed from a public, random execution. Showing trepidation towards killing hundreds of innocent laborers.

To bring up the subject of Elena, he genuinely considers her to be his daughter and cares for her as such, including acting as any normal father would when confronted with horny suitors. In his mind, the only thing that stood in the way of him being her biological father was the fact that Esperanza chose Diego de la Vega over him.

Ordering a dog to sit when in the vicinity of a twihard will have hilarious results.

Stuart Wilson played the part well. And I really believe the role was created with Alan Rickman in mind;Wilson vaguely resembles him.

Great bad guy. Very memorable and interesting