Charismatic Antagonistic

When creating your antagonist you have a tendency to make him unlikable. Which makes sense right? The readers should like the hero and dislike the antagonist. That way they will cheer on the hero on his quest to defeat the antagonist. But does that always apply?
If your target audience is in elementary school then yes, definitely. But more mature audiences sometimes won't like it if you tell them who to like and who not to like. If you make a person seem particularly undesirable they may feel as if you're trying to manipulate them.

The other day I watched a movie from the 50's or 60's in which a career woman told the protagonist that she wants to get married but she wouldn't want to stand behind her husband. She would want to stand beside him. The protagonist answered something along the lines of "never gonna happen". Knowing it was an old ass movie and that's how men thought back then I immediately figured out she's gonna be the bitch in the movie. Needless to say I wasn't a big fan of the protagonist and the movie just turned out to displease me. Of course in the end the big bad feminist bitch wanted the protagonist to send his child away. At this point I should have felt sorry for the kid but I sided with the feminist bitch.

Don't try to make a negative statement about a certain type of people by making them the antagonist.
Your antagonist should not be hated. In fact I believe that your story would be far more successful if the readers like the antagonist. To be honest I actually think a charismatic antagonist is even more important than a charismatic protagonist.

But how do we create a charismatic antagonist? In my article about Anti-Heroes I suggested too harness the protagonist's weakness. But I wouldn't necessarily suggest that for the antagonist. You can actually make your antagonist a Mary-Sue (see my article Is Mary-Sue always to be avoided?) and most people will be ok with it. Although it should be noted that certain negative characteristics that would be weaknesses to a hero (arrogance, selfishness, etc...) are not necessarily a weakness to a villain. I think the more invincible the antagonist seems the better. And if you want to be a people pleaser, you may even let him win at the end.

As an example I will talk about my favorite 3 movie villains. All three won an Oscar, so appearently I'm not the only one who was impressed. Also the main characteristics of my favorite movie villains are sophistication and/or insanity/psychopathy.

One of these was Heath Ledger's performance of the Joker in The Dark Knight. A lot of people say he only won an Oscar because he died shortly after shooting the movie. I don't think that's the case. I think Heath Ledger was an incredible actor and took the Joker to a higher level.
The Joker in the Dark Knight is completely insane. You can't even really say he is evil because his agenda is not to hurt anyone. He just doesn't care if his actions will cause pain. He just wants to spread chaos. He's very human and his capabilities are reduced to that. But at the same time he seems smarter than the protagonist because he is always one step ahead.

Another one of these was Christoph Waltz's performance of Colonel Hans Landa in Inglorious Basterds. Could there be anyone less likable than a Nazi-Officer? But we love "The Jew Hunter" because he is irresistibly sophisticated. From the effortless juggling between 4 different languages over the subtle indications of superiority (the bigger pipe, ordering milk for Shoshanna, the whole Italian conversation) to the poetic way he speaks about cows - Hans Landa is just too charming to not be adored. Even for a Nazi.

The last one of my Oscar-winning favorites is Anthony Hopkins performance of Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs. He is both insane and sophisticated. A cannibal, who is a well-respected psychologist? Sounds like the stuff dreams are made of. He takes a quick look at you and knows your worst fears and innermost secrets. But he certainly likes to play with his food. One minute he stuns you with a philosophical question, the next minute he eats your brains. Hannibal Lecter is so good the protagonist's success depends on the crumbs of insight he throws at her feet.

So when you make your antagonist, make him good and evil.