Friday, August 23, 2013

Only Ben Affleck Can Bring This Riven Nation Together

GOOD LORD, PEOPLE.  Warner Brothers announces that it cast Ben Affleck as Batman for the Superman sequel, and the Internet explodes with the rage of a thousand suns.  Apparently Ben Affleck is the only thing that can bring this deeply divided nation together ... by uniting almost everyone in their conviction that This Is The Worst Casting Decision EVAR.

OK, this is kind of funny in a way, but it's also kind of ridiculous.  (Let's look at two explosions of rage about casting, shall we?  Example of the first and the current howling.)  AFFLECK HASN'T EVEN FILMED A SINGLE FRAME AS BATMAN.  EVERYBODY CALM DOWN ALREADY, GEEZ.

I thought Man of Steel with Henry Cavill was pretty good, and as far as I'm concerned, Affleck's well and truly resurrected himself with Gone Baby Gone, The Town, and - lest we all forget - Argo. OK, so he's a better director than he is an actor, but I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.  And if I'm wrong, I'll just root for Superman to kick his butt all over Gotham.

But if you want to have fun hating Affleck today, go ahead.  I've linked to an old but still hilarious skit from Jimmy Kimmel.



3 comments:

Eric said...

I wonder why Billy Zane never got a shot at playing Batman.

In 1996/1997, his Phantom combined with Caledon Hockley (Titanic) could have been, with some minor tweaking, Batman/Bruce Wayne. At 47 now, Zane is just about at the upper limit in age to pull off the role. If this movie is inspired by the Dark Knight Returns Batman/Superman storyline, then 47 for Batman would be the right age.

Eric said...

Add: My point being, other than Billy Zane ought to play Batman, none of the actors who've played Batman from Michael Keaton to Christian Bale has been a neat fit with the Batman/Bruce Wayne type established in the comics. Affleck isn't the most unlikely actor who will have played Batman.

Mad Minerva said...

Seriously. People LOST THEIR MINDS when Michael Keaton was cast.