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Ign.com: Ben Affleck Is The New Batman

Toe Jam

By Toe Jam
in The Tailgate

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sean_e_b

sean_e_b

Posted
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A terrible choice, no honest defense for it really other than they wanted a big name. While Affleck has shown to be a more than competent director he has never been more than above mundane as an actor. Even in great movies like The Town and Argo, his acting skills were by far the weakest links as he can only play slightly altered versions of himself.

 

Comparing internet reaction to his casting to that of Bale or Keaton being cast as Batman or Ledger being cast as The Joker is just way off the mark. Bale had more than already shown his acting range in American Psycho (one of the greatest performances in acting history) and The Machinist and was already adored by directors like James Cameron and Terrence Malick.

 

Keaton was of course pre-internet, so the reaction to him is highly speculative as it is. Even so, Keaton had already showed some great range as Beetlejuice and the biggest issue with his casting was his physique, not his acting. Keaton's performance as Batman is also highly inflated by the poor performances of Batman that followed.

 

Ledger's choice was questioned because he was still a relative unknown with few movies under his belt. To an even likely greater degree, it was questioned because he just got through playing a gay cowboy in Brokeback Mountain which made it fun to mock.

 

Affleck is neither an unknown or an actor that has range. As a matter of fact he's known for extreme opposites of that. He's played in a number of films, never showing much more range than Edith Bunker's singing voice. He will not be the reason why the film inevitably fails (that will fall on Zach Snyder), but he is definitely a miscast as Batman or Bruce Wayne. I would have felt a lot better with this had Affleck been hired to replace Snyder as director.

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The Evil Genius

The Evil Genius

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Just remember...

 

The casting of Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man isn't just a grotesque affront to Iron Man fans. After all, who care about Iron Man fans? They're a minority even among comic-book geeks. No, having an effeminate roué like Robert Downey Jr. play Tony Stark is actually the most subversive thing that's ever been done in a comic-book movie — and not in a good way. Tony Stark, the billionaire industrialist who wears the Iron Man suit, is among the most virile of all superhero alter egos; if not for his bum ticker, he would make Bruce Wayne look like a milquetoast. Instead, the casting of Downey makes us fear the movie presents an ironic, effete weakling hidden inside the suit — the very image of "man, half dead in his accoutrements." Like Darth Vader, whose fearsome mask hides a pale and puckered scalp, RDJ as Tony Stark is a secret shame, a supercilious weakling hidden inside a suit that every scene of the movie will pronounce to be a fraud. If we were in a forgiving mood, we'd suggest that director Jon Favreau was making a point about the Zeitgeist, or the weakness of modern man, but that doesn't matter: The iron glove should never contain a velvet hand. —Josh Ozersky

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Spaceman Spiff

Spaceman Spiff

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I don't really see it.  As previously mentioned, he's good when he stays inside the roles that he's good at.  

 

But I'll also agree with Jumbo and say that Daredevil wasn't completely awful as others have made it out to be, I don't think.  Certainly wasn't the best, though.

 

The latest Superman release was disappointing, I expect this upcoming movie will be bad, too. But I'll fork over my cash to see it firsthand in hopes that I'll walk away mildly pleased.  

 

IMO, a lot in life is just about managing expectations.  I have no expectations that this will be a good movie.  Therefore, I stand a chance of being somewhat surprised.

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Jumbo

Jumbo

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In the age of social media, if people aren't complaining about something, then something is wrong.

 

Goes back farther, even before the days when they called their internet "the cracker barrel."  :P

 

It's a tradition absorbed into the DNA of our culture and has been well-summarized by the pithy observation: "if you ain't ****in', you ain't livin'"  :lol:

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Glenn X

Glenn X

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When I first heard the news, I'll admit my reaction was, "What the f**k?"  I didn't even know he had been on Warners' radar.  The guy I was hearing about most was Josh Brolin, whom I'd half-convinced myself could do well in the role after Christian Bale's superlative run with it.  Then I hear about Ben Affleck as Batman, and I have visions of Team America: World Police running through my head, specifically the following hilarious lyrics from the film's "love" song...

 

I need you like Ben Affleck needs acting school
He was terrible in that film...
I need you like Cuba Gooding needed a bigger part
He's way better than Ben Affleck, and now,
All I can think about is your smile, and that sh**ty movie too...
"Pearl Harbor" sucked, and I miss you...

 

Then I went to check out the musings of one of my favorite Batman comic-book writers, Chuck Dixon (of Knightfall fame), and he was unimpressed with the casting, saying the following, under the handle of "Chuck" at his website's message board: "Affleck has entered the Robin Williams' school of acting. You can gauge the seriousness of his performance in ratio to the amount of facial hair he's sporting. I liked him in Extract, where he was playing an affable jerk. In Argo he was effective enough, but nothing wonderous. His acting in that was as overrated as the rest of the movie."

 

Despite all that, I hope Affleck pleasantly surprises me -- much as Heath Ledger did as the Joker in The Dark Knight, which Ledger helped to make perhaps the best Batman film and arguably the best comic-book movie ever made.  There are some cool comic-book stories over the years involving Batman/Superman team-ups, and apparently director Zack Snyder and screenwriter David Goyer have been chatting up some of the old DC writers for inspiration on the matter.

 

Lastly, I really liked what Snyder & Goyer did with Man of Steel, and I was looking forward to a purely Superman-centric sequel.  The news that the sequel would feature Batman caught me completely off-guard.  But that's what happens, I guess, when $225 million is spent to make a movie that generates $290 million at the North American box office; the studio starts sh**ting bricks and demanding a sure-fire successful sequel -- and nothing equals boffo box office like ol' Bats.  Hell, even those terrible Joel Schumacher-directed Bat-flicks made money.

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Toe Jam

Toe Jam

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While Affleck is not my first (or tenth) choice for the role, I have seen him give good supporting performances before and in Batman vs. Superman, he will certainly be sharing half the burden of the film with the already perfectly cast Henry Cavill. Stranger things have happened.

Don’t believe me? Well consider this list of seven actors who once upon a time fans were ABSOLUTELY positive would fail. Seven actors whose casting spelled doom in the trades and constituted an assortment of varying handwringing.

http://www.denofgeek.us/movies/batman-casting/177731/seven-actors-fans-thought-would-suck

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DaGoonie55

DaGoonie55

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So Ben Affleck will be donning the cape and fighting the Joke-ah? The Ridd-lah? The facking Penguin? I'd like to say this will be wicked awesome, but I'm more inclined to say that Michael Keaton is chuckling right now.

 

 

Thank you for this.  i think I peed myself.  Hilarious.

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Glenn X

Glenn X

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Bryan Cranston as Lex Luthor?  Niiiice.  B)  Thanks for the scoop, Warhead36.

 

Toe Jam, that link you provided offers a very good list of examples where the pre-release negativity of moviegoers and/or media to a particular film's casting decision(s) proved to be dead wrong.  And I hope Warners' casting of Affleck as Batman proves to be a new addition to that list... because, despite all the heated protestations of fans, Bale isn't returning (due to writer/director Chris Nolan being uninvolved with the upcoming project other than an honorary "executive producer" credit) and Warners isn't reneging on its newly-signed contract with Affleck.

 

However, there have been times where fans were right when they said a would-be blockbuster wouldn't pass muster.  Off the top of my head, I can think of Superman Returns and Green Lantern and The Hulk.  But subpar screenwriting rather than flawed casting happened to be the main problem with those films.

 

Lastly, I don't get the ire that's been directed at Man of Steel.  In my opinion, it's the best Superman movie ever made.  I love 1978's Superman: The Movie.  Director Richard Donner firmly established himself as an A-lister with this film, and Christopher Reeve was perfectly cast in the title role.  Moreover, Reeve had great chemistry with Margot Kidder (something that was woefully lacking between their acting replacements in the oddly-conceived "sequel" to those early Superman films, 2006's Superman Returns).  But the film, as was the custom back then with comic-book movies, had a slightly campy quality to it (Superman II was even more pronounced in this regard, with Superman turning his chest symbol into a boomerang-type weapon -- huh?! -- and hurling it at ostentatiously scenary-chewing supervillains), and its visual FX, especially its unconvincing miniature photography, haven't aged particularly well.  :rolleyes:

 

By contrast, Man of Steel has state-of-the-art visual FX & production-design elements (I especially liked the H.R. Giger-style look of General Zod's ships and clothing); and it has a darker, grittier tone, replete with a villain who is driven to achieve his goals, dispassionately cutting down anyone in his way, rather than exchanging look-at-me quips with his adversaries.  Also, I appreciated the new film's attempt to "more realistically" (for want of a better phrase) depict Clark Kent's growing realization that he possesses physical traits unlike anyone else on Earth; and how that realization makes him feel isolated from everyone around him, fearing that disclosure of his powers might place him at the mercy those who'd want to lock him away and treat him as a "specimen" to be scrutinized.

 

Perhaps those who disliked the new film long for the more upbeat approach of the earlier movies.  And I can understand that, as Superman has long been associated with an optimistic perspective, especially when compared to the more pessimistic attitude of the Batman comics over the past few decades.  But some of my favorite episodes of the late 1990s Superman cartoon consisted of a two-parter called "Legacy," wherein Superman was captured and brainwashed by Darkseid to attack Earth and lay the groundwork for an invasion by Darkseid's forces.  Eventually, Superman rebels against his brainwashing and helps humanity to repel Darkseid's invasion attempt... but the "Legacy" storyline (and the entire TV series) ends on a downbeat note, with Superman realizing that many humans will never fully trust him again.  I had long wanted to see a big-screen Superman movie with that kind of tone, and Man of Steel delivered that.  :)

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GibbsFactor

GibbsFactor

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Cranston as Lex Luthor is simply a rumor at this point made up by Cosmic Book News and isn't very credible.   While Cranston is a fanboy favorite and he himself has expressed interest (along with Mark Strong) there has been nothing official saying Cranston has signed, certainly not for 6 films.    I'd say this is a fake rumor for now, along with Afleck's 13 or so picture deal or whatever craziness is being reported.

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