There are many things worth getting upset about in the world today: civil war in Syria; melting ice-caps; falling standards of living. Ben Affleck being cast as Batman in the new Superman movie, on the other hand, not so much.
Twitter went into apoplexies last week when it emerged that the Argo film-maker is set to pull on the famous cowl and cape in Zack Snyder's forthcoming sequel to this year's Man of Steel. Petitions were swiftly posted on Change.org demanding studio Warner Bros change its mind or face imminent apocalypse. Bloggers dredged up the awful Gigli era, in which Affleck made terrible films with Jennifer Lopez and was pictured hanging out on swanky yachts in even more terrible promotional videos for his then girlfriend's pop singles. Others recalled Daredevil, a shoddy pre-Marvel Studios comic-book movie in which Affleck offered acres of smarm but very little charm as a red gimp-suited blind crime-fighter who seemed to bear little resemblance to the much-loved silver age superhero. If the actor thought his superb run of movies behind the camera, Gone Baby Gone, The Town and the Oscar-winning Argo, had released him from Hollywood purgatory for good, he swiftly discovered his error.
Since then, there has been a bounce-back of sorts. Fanboy heroes such as Joss Whedon, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and the actor's old comrade Kevin Smith have all come out in defence of Batfleck this week. Smith even revealed that Affleck once had a Batcave-style entrance to a panic room at his home, a revelation perhaps less likely to induce sympathy for the star than its author intended. The artist otherwise known as Silent Bob's point, of course, was that his pal is a genuine, dyed-in-the-wool comic-book aficionado who will treat the role with the seriousness that fanboys demand.
Whether you're a fan of Affleck's casting or not, it really ought not to have come as a shock. The Oscar-winning film-maker was first tipped to take charge of Warner Bros's proposed Justice League movie, which remains on course to follow Superman vs Batman into cinemas, over a year ago by the Hollywood trades. This week they've hinted that the studio's plan to involve Affleck in its DC comics-based superhero universe goes way beyond merely casting him as Batman. If the film-maker could bring the slick, visceral verve of a movie such as The Town to a future Batman solo outing in which he both starred and took on directing duties, might he be the worthy successor to Christopher Nolan that everyone is hoping for?
I suspect the problem with Affleck is that there is something about him that rather reminds people of Shannon Hamilton, the jockish manager of the Fashionable Male clothes store he played in Smith's Mallrats. Yet in reality he's rather more like Bruce Wayne himself: a suave, rich and good-looking individual with an arrogant air about him, but one who nevertheless engages in philanthropy and appears to maintain an intelligent, caring worldview. Wayne, not Batman, provides the real meat of the role, at least according to Matt Damon, who commented on his friend's casting this week. "Batman just sits there with his cowl over his head and whispers in a kinda gruff voice at people," Damon told the Times of India. "Bruce Wayne is the more challenging part of the role, and Ben will be great at that."
Beneath Affleck's slightly macho demeanour there also resides an increasingly confident actor whose performances have only got better since he began to take charge of the cameras. DC fans with short memories should also be reminded of the public outrage that greeted the appointment of Heath Ledger as the Joker in The Dark Knight, Anne Hathaway as Catwoman in its sequel, The Dark Knight Rises – and even Michael Keaton as Batman in Tim Burton's dim and distant origin movie from 1989. Had Twitter or Change.org been around back then, the latter would have been better off never leaving the Batcave.
I've one more reason why Batfleck just might be good news: if there was a major fault to Snyder's Man of Steel, it was the over-the-top ending – one clearly designed to compete with The Avengers's equally smashtastic denouement – which wiped almost everything that came before it from the memory like a great searing fireball of frantic, chaotic calamity. Somebody with some film-making nous should have told the director to tone it down a little.
Affleck is unlikely to have signed up for a Batman role where he is merely a combatant in a $200m non-playable shoot-em-up video game: he will want to use the opportunity to prove his acting chops, just as Robert Downey Jr has in the Iron Man movies. And if he is to continue as Gotham's saviour in future movies, Superman vs Batmanneeds to offer up a caped crusader that suits Affleck's more subtle film-making skills. The whole thing points to a Man of Steel sequel that may just be a more cerebral affair than previously anticipated. Have a look at this bravura fan-made fake trailer for the movie (featuring Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston as Lex Luthor), and tell me your tastebuds aren't even slightly tingling?
More on Ben Affleck as Batman
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