Ben Affleck is The New Batman

[Scott Rothman]

UGHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I don't even care if people want to debate his acting ability. I detest the dude, especially after Mallrats and Chasing Amy. Kevin Smith made me hate this man so so much

 

[s0p0g]

Considering how good Daredevil was, and the fact that Daredevil was a pretty similar character to Batman, it'll be a good fit.

Oh, and Daredevil is one of the most underrated Superhero movies ever.

i am not the only one, yay! (yeah i know, you're NEVER the only one, but you'll catch my drift, aye?)
although i cannot really imagine him as Batman after Bale & his depiction of Batman, which was so gritty it almost became grimdark (still totally awesome, don't get me wrong!), maybe if they place the tone somewhere between Kilmer and Bale it might just work! perhaps. we'll see.

so, all you naysayers, just wait, give it a shot, let's see how the trailers turn out, and maybe, just maybe, just once let's judge the final product?

(...alternatively we can do what we seem to do best, and judge and moan (even before we know anything specific). i mean, if you want to become a bitter old person you better start practicing early, right? ^^ )

 

[Wuvlycuddles]

Scenario #1: "Waah waah waah, Heath Ledger is gonna be shit as the Joker!" - and then he wasn't, surprising quite a few people.

Scenario #2: "Waah waah waah, Ben Affleck is gonna be shit as the Batman!" - and then...

Stop crying bloody murder and wait for some actual footage. A throat-cancer voice and a workout routine does not a Batman make. Men in previous movies have portrayed the man quite well even though one pretty much expected them to completely blow it. Michael Keaton was not considered a fantastic choice at the time, and now it's heralded as the definitive classic.

Apples and Oranges dude, people were dismissive of Ledger because they had no idea what he was capable of and I think people are dismissive of Affleck precisely because we do have an idea of what he is capable of.

The modern Batmans gotta be intense, crazy, dark and broody. Keaton nailed the crazy aspect and Bale nailed the intense aspect but Afflecks got none of those things, not that I am saying he is a bad actor or anything but he's more hero than anti-hero by a long stretch.

 

[StriderShinryu]

Affleck is a very good choice. Unlike some actors who've played Batman in the past, I can actually see Affleck as both a blievable Bruce Wayne and a believable Batman. I also feel that, for the issues that DareDevil had (which weren't as many as some people say it had), very few of them could be dropped at Affleck's feet. As much as I think it's too early to reboot the character again, I'm excited to see where this goes.

 

[Vrach]

Nathan Fillion should totally be the next Batman.

Only if they did a reboot of the Adam West series. He'd be a perfect fit for that

OT: I saw this yesterday, all I can say is, I'm still waiting for the punchline. Probably one of the worst casting choices I could think of for Batman.

 

[Mr. Q]

Meh, I'm open to it. He was in some real stinkers, but he has also had plenty of great films in his career. He has always been a mixed bag as far as acting is concerned. I think he'll do fine as the Dark Knight. Also, Daredevil gets way more bad press than it deserves. That movie was very good compared to a whole lot of other movies out there, to be honest. But it was a fine retelling of a classic Daredevil tale. In all honesty, the thing that stunk that movie up was how Bullseye was represented. Elektra was pretty well handled, but not the sequel... that movie was truly terrible.

My rebuttal:


And yes, Elektra blew.

No argument here regarding Elektra. -_-

 

[Mr. Q]

Joking aside, I wanna keep an open mind and say that Affleck has become a more mature actor and director. But didn't he say he was done with this genre, especially after being offered Justice League? Guessing WB hit his price range when they offered the role.

So does this mean Kevin Smith is going to be a consultant on this movie too?

God, this is way too much shit to process in the morning.

 

[Buizel91]

Spoiler: Big ass image

I'd say something about how it would be better to wait and see how this turns out rather than freak about how Ben Affleck is going to personally burn every Batman comic and movie that's ever existed, but haters gonna hate.

You just won this thread, well done!

OT: Honestly i am perfectly okay with this, i don't see the problem...like at all.

There were doubts over Christian Bale, there were doubts over Heath, Hell there have been doubts for EVERY Superhero film ever, including the Marvel ones, and they have been brilliant.

Could they have picked someone better? Yes. But Ben is not the worst choice at all.

 

[CriticalMiss]

Well at least this makes it easier to decide which superhero movies to not watch in the future. So long dreams of a Justice League movie. Farewell Dark Knight.

Luckily Marvel will keep us entertained for the forseeable future.

 

[omega 616]

On one hand maybe Batman wont sound like a fucking tool now. On the other Ben Affleck has never really seemed a good actor to me, maybe I haven't seen enough of his films though.

He looks more like a receptionist or PA than a billionaire crime fighter.

For the whole Heath ledger thing, I never really heard anything about him till "OMG, best joker ever" AFTER he died. My feeling was a lot of people were thinking "Heath who? Knights tale? Never heard of him" and now he is considered some kind of acting genius.

 

[fix-the-spade]

Well guess I won't go see anymore Batman movies.

<spoiler= I'm a just leave this little screengrab here>
Nevermind, ninja'd up the page

Alternatively, remember the backlash when washed up Robert Downey Jr was cast as Tony Stark? Of course you don't.
Give the man a chance he's a perfectly capable actor (I can see him being a great Bruce Wayne, even if he lacks the slightly menacing streak of Christian Bale), it hinges on the script and Christopher Nolan's ability to reign in his contempt for comic books more than anything else.

In fact I think the whole thing hinges on DC/Warner finding someone else than Nolan, who seems to be frustrated that he's making 12a comic book movies instead of the much darker fare he's done in the past. I don't think he wants to carry DC movies forwards half as much as DC wants him to, nor do I think Zack Snyder is the best choice either, there needs to be some new blood.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

people conveniently forgetting that Heath Ledger surprised the hell out of us with the Joker. But then again I suppose that somehow doesn't count because of...um...uh...well, just because. Anyway, Affleck's been on an upswing ever since he reinvented himself. He's been three for three with his own movies and he's always been a good actor. This actually interests me more than most casting just because it's so left field.

 

[BabySinclair]

I'm willing to hold judgement on Affleck as Batman. The script in Daredevil was all kinds of crappy so I really can't say if it was his fault or the script's. He's definitely shown improvement in acting so I'm hopeful, mainly because I don't expect to see the same dark and brooding version of Batman like in the Nolan trilogy, probably closer to the DC Animated Universe.

My main concern is still the fact that Snyder is running the show and given that I was disappointed the last time, I'm not to hopeful for round 2.

 

[KnightOfTwo]

I'll admit that Affleck can act, and is an even better writer/director but I can't actually picture him in the role. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying he is going to fail at it, I'll have to see something on it before I can make any judgements of believability or quality. When I try to picture him, I just can't.

People keep using the Heath Ledger surprised as the Joker defense. I'd like to say an even more surprising one (at least for me) was Mark Ruffalo's breakout as Bruce Banner in the Avengers.

Really though I say this hinges more on the writing/producing/directing team on this. With Nolan and Snyder still attached I'm more concerned by that. I wasn't a fan of Man of Steel, didn't hate it but I didn't enjoy it either. I don't think Affleck is suited to the role, but then again I can't really say I've liked anyone in the films, they all had their problems though I would say that has more to do with the writers or directors not knowing what to do with the character. Nolan made good use of the character but it was in his own "I loathe comic books" style which worked for those films because they stripped out all the absurdity. With Batman paired up with an actual alien, the absurdity is back on the table whether they want it or not so I don't see how that team will manage to get this down anyway.

Basically while I don't see Affleck doing well in the role, I'm not tempted or interested in seeing this moreso because of everyone else attached to it (with the exception of Cavill who I thought was pretty decent in spite of the lack of direction for his character).

And for those saying Nathan Fillion should be Aquaman or Green Lantern. I'll throw my hat out there and say he would make a better Green Arrow, but that's just me.

 

[crazygameguy4ever]

uh... i think i threw up in a mouth a little when I heard this... Ben Affleck? as the dark Knight? did they run out of good actors to pick from? I was all set to watch the superman/batman film until i heard this.. no way i'm watching it now.. R.I.P. good Batman movies.. you shall be missed

 

[Chester Rabbit]

You know what, my favourite live action Batman actor is Michael Keeton, you know Beatle Juice...so I am willing to give Ben a shot. I mean hell look at what Heath Ledger who was known for his pretty boy roles at the time gave us. No one saw that one coming did they.

 

[Mylinkay Asdara]

Batman is - to me - one of those dual roles. You have the Batman side -the super-hero, dark, man with a purpose fighting evil that skews towards the "crazy" end and then you have the Bruce Wayne side - man of the world, business mogul, charity ball attending, life of the party, heart-throb. It's a little like James Bond - who has to be equal parts action hero and subtle spy.

Actors cast for these parts tend to favor one side and fall down on the other. Sticking with Batman. Michael Keaton was probably the best at both sides, for all he was slightly in the middle with both of them equally at least. George Clooney was a really good Bruce Wayne, but a rather awful Batman. Val Kilmer was not really enough on the Bruce Wayne front, but his Batman was... let's call it passible. Christian Bale... I really did not think he managed Bruce Wayne at all - not the traditional Bruce at least, more of a playboy young-Bruce maybe - it was a little too Dawson's Creek for me with the Rachel thing, honestly. He was good at the Batman side (minus the increasingly intense voice-thing).

I think Ben Affleck has a shot at being good on both sides, but, like Keaton, I think he's going to end up in the middle on each. Which is, for me at least, better than being good at one and not at all good at the other.

It's a hard role to pull off, given the extremes of the character.

 

[search_rip]

See Daredevil. It is an imperfect movie, but I think he was very good as Matt Murdock/Daredevil, which is a cross between a poor man's Spiderman and Batman.

Kills me, that movie needed just a few tweeks and it could have been great. Instead, it is on some people's top 5 list of worst super hero movies ever. It doesn't deserve that

I agree, Daredevil IMO has a lot of problems, mainly Elektra, Bullseye and even Kingpin but Ben Affleck as Matt Murdock was a good choice BUT I just can't picture him as Batman even is the characters have some similarities, anyway, some people say "oh but Argo, his Oscar and blah blah blah" just remember that as far as we know Affleck is not going to write nor direct the sequel of Man of Steel so, as other people had written, if it sucks is Snyder's fault.