I think comparing any of the new “bad-guys” cast to the old one is a mistake.
Well, I wasn’t comparing for the sake of comparing. The goal of the new films shouldn’t be to “be like” the old films. The goal should be to make a great movie. In the respect of the acting of the villains, the OT had great acting and great characters. Admiral Piett played his role understated. He’s just a guy doing his job. He’s scared of Vader. Other times he’s expressing his disgust with bounty hunters. There’s just so much he does with so little, and he never comes across as a cartoon.
Hux on the other hand, the guy is a cartoon. All he does is twirl his figurative mustache. He sneers. He screams. He does bad guy things. Then he screams and shouts some more.
That was kind of my point though, that they haven’t just rehashed old character-clichès. Hux behaves differently because he has reason to. He screams and yell, because of the same reason that Kylo does. Because they’re both young fanatics, unlike the middle-ages generals of the OT. The power balance has turned up-side-down since the OT, so these characters have a reason to behave more frantically. I don’t get the idea that HUX is some cartoon villain (then again the OT bad guys weren’t to far from that either), he’s a young extremist. In his mind it’s probably him against the world. I also seem to recall an interview with Gleeson where he explained Hux’s motivations as a young general, pining for control and order in what he sees as an out of control galaxy. He want control, and he’s not getting it, hence his erratic behavior. Kylo does the same, he’s looking for control, fails to get it, and he looses control of his emotions. Despite looking very much like the OT Empire, these character’s have completely different motivations.