Why I’m Pro-Batfleck

 Posted by on February 2, 2014  Filed as: Editorial  Add comments  Topic(s): ,
Feb 022014
 

BatfleckSometimes we can be a difficult group to please. And it makes sense. Whenever you take a franchise with multiple decades of history and mythology behind it and try to change it, those changes will inevitably rub some people the wrong way. So when it was announced that the next actor to play Bruce Wayne and Batman would be Ben Affleck, some of us were less than thrilled. After all, his previous attempt at a superhero was 2003’s Daredevil, a film most of us don’t remember (though word on the street is that the Director’s Cut is a marked improvement over the theatrical release).

I, however, feel that Affleck is a solid choice for the role. Solid, but not perfect. Perfect doesn’t work for me with Batman. Not that long ago, Warner Brothers were similarly faced with the task of replacing the man who would play Batman. As luck would have it, there was a mature, handsome, and charismatic actor with a very bright future as a leading man already on their payroll. Women wanted him, and men wanted to be him. He was by nearly every measure, the perfect choice. His name was George Clooney, and he was the star of 1997’s Batman and Robin. So you’ll understand why I believe that perfect is sometimes overrated. Ben Affleck might be a flawed choice due to his past films, his perceived physicality, and his range as an actor, but a flawless choice in a flawed movie won’t help anyone. In 1997, Clooney couldn’t have been more of a sure thing to be a great Batman. Now Clooney (allegedly) refunds anyone who tells him they paid to see it in theatres out of his own pocket.

But back to 2013. It’s been clear for a few years now that Ben Affleck is taking his work seriously. His directorial debut Gone Baby Gone was a damn fine crime film, and his follow-up The Town was exceptional and boasted a solid performance by Affleck himself. It was even talked about as a contender for Best Picture in 2009. Argo, of course, recently won Best Picture (though not without controversy in my Home and Native Land, but that’s a different topic). Affleck’s also rebuilt his reputation as an actor, winning significant acclaim for his performance in Hollywoodland, winning the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the prestigious Venice Film Festival. His rebuilt reputation isn’t something he’s going to throw away by turning in a bad performance as Bruce Wayne.

And it’s unlikely anyone with the power to do so will allow it. This post won’t focus on Batman and Robin too much, but one of the harshest lessons Warner Brothers and DC learned from it is that a bad Batman movie can result in a major film franchise essentially laying dormant for 8 years. Given how big of a business comic book movies have become since the release of Batman Begins, it seems unlikely that Warner Brothers will take a chance on another high-profile flop with it’s biggest asset, especially with what’s being planned. While I doubt Affleck’s Batman could be bad enough to derail the franchise a second time, there’s too much at stake to gamble on that.

Affleck’s first appearance as Batman will be in Zack Snyder’s sequel to Man of Steel, but if Warner Brothers plans on building not just a Justice League franchise, but another Batman franchise, Affleck’s involvement could be quite significant. There’s not much of a downside to a popular, Oscar-winning filmmaker involved in your main franchise. While many wanted Joseph Gordon-Levitt to take over the cape and cowl, Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy was always intended to be a stand-alone story. If you’re going to hire someone to get a franchise off the ground, people with Affleck’s level of experience and success are very rare. For Warner Brothers and DC Comics, Affleck is the Batman they need. Time will tell if he’s the Batman we deserve.

Scott Fairley

Scott is a writer and theatre director from Canada. He lives in Hamilton with his wife and guitars, and can also be found on both Twitter and his personal blog.

  3 Responses to “Why I’m Pro-Batfleck”

  1. Kilmer is still my favorite Batman.

  2. Ha! I can not remember a thing about Val Kilmer’s batman movie.

    Adam West all the way!

  3. Kilmer’s Batman is hard to gauge because he had to compete with Jim Carrey and Tommy Lee Jones trying to see who could chew more scenery, plus Joel Schumacher’s obsession with inexplicable laser light shows. He didn’t really get much to work with in terms of normal scenes or dialogue. Those scenes were fine, but they were pretty few and far between.

 Leave a Reply

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

(required)

(required)