Batman and Superman: New Batman...is Ben Affleck?

[The Unknown Twinkie]

I'm curious, have you seen Daredevil? Ben Affleck could'nt even play a blind obscure superhero, and you believe that he'll be a good Batman? Go watch Gigli, Pearl Harbor, Armageddon and Smokin' aces and tell me if you think he's a good actor. I'm sorry, but he's pretty much confined to a tier above Vin Diesel.

I like the DD movie, I thought it was really good, but this was before Disney bought Marvel. Now I really don't support having batman in with superman because batman already have 3 movies and this was suppose to be a superman trilogy not a Superman, Superbat, Superman movies. Now if they did it after the third superman movie, people would be fine with it. I don't know how well it will be but I think it will be awesome because I love Man Of Steel and the fight scenes are just awesome.

 

[KantoPkmnMaster]

I like the DD movie, I thought it was really good, but this was before Disney bought Marvel. Now I really don't support having batman in with superman because batman already have 3 movies and this was suppose to be a superman trilogy not a Superman, Superbat, Superman movies. Now if they did it after the third superman movie, people would be fine with it. I don't know how well it will be but I think it will be awesome because I love Man Of Steel and the fight scenes are just awesome.

I wasn't a fan of Man of Steel. It was definitely made by Zac Snyder though. I'll say that much. It was just like 300 in that it lacked substance but was high on action. Basically, it was just another superhero movie. I wouldn't be surprised if the movie gets panned yet still makes hundreds of millions in the box office.

 

[Hey Micky!]

I'm very much on the side of "Oh stop over-reacting please, fanboys" when it comes to this casting decision. Ben Affleck has more than enough acting chops to his name to give me the confidence that he can play Batman (in particular, it takes me all of 3 seconds to imagine Affleck playing Bruce Wayne specifically).

What perplexes me the most is that no one at WB saw this reaction coming. With the mixed reception Man of Steel got, they did a good job of getting the fans back on board by announcing Batman vs. Superman for the Man of Steel sequel but they've shot themselves right back in the foot and turned a lot of the positive buzz into negative buzz by casting Affleck. Whilst I'm of the opinion that Affleck will do a perfectly good job of being Batman, I reckon WB could've got a similar level of performance out of a lot of actors - the big difference being a lot of other actors wouldn't have generated this level of backlash.

It's sad to be thinking of a movie from a marketing perspective instead of the actual quality of the film's perspective, but with a movie like this, especially competing against Marvel for the same demographic, marketing and generating positive viral buzz plays a big part and they've already shot themselves in the foot.

 

[SBaby]

I'm very much on the side of "Oh stop over-reacting please, fanboys" when it comes to this casting decision. Ben Affleck has more than enough acting chops to his name to give me the confidence that he can play Batman (in particular, it takes me all of 3 seconds to imagine Affleck playing Bruce Wayne specifically).

I see Ben Affleck being a wealthy guy, not Bruce Wayne. That's the problem. I'm certain that Ben Affleck is capable of playing the character well. But the problem is, it's very hard for me to imagine that this is Batman/Bruce Wayne (let alone an older Batman/Bruce Wayne), just as it was hard to imagine that he was any other character he's played in the past. I'm not saying he's turned in bad performances. I'm just saying that it's not easy to sell me on a character when Ben Affleck is playing said character.

What perplexes me the most is that no one at WB saw this reaction coming. With the mixed reception Man of Steel got, they did a good job of getting the fans back on board by announcing Batman vs. Superman for the Man of Steel sequel but they've shot themselves right back in the foot and turned a lot of the positive buzz into negative buzz by casting Affleck. Whilst I'm of the opinion that Affleck will do a perfectly good job of being Batman, I reckon WB could've got a similar level of performance out of a lot of actors - the big difference being a lot of other actors wouldn't have generated this level of backlash.

It's sad to be thinking of a movie from a marketing perspective instead of the actual quality of the film's perspective, but with a movie like this, especially competing against Marvel for the same demographic, marketing and generating positive viral buzz plays a big part and they've already shot themselves in the foot.

In all honesty, WB should've seen this reaction coming, especially since most people remember how well Daredevil was received. And blaming the fans for this reaction, isn't going to make them change their minds. If anything, it's going to alienate them further.

I wouldn't necessarily say that WB shot themselves in the foot with this decision (though as I said before, there are so many actors they could have picked for this role over Affleck). Theoretically, it could work (Heath Ledger as the Joker worked and fans were initially against him being in that movie). But the reality is, fans are going to go into this movie with a negative mindset even before the opening scene. Because of this, it will be twice as hard to win them over. So this movie had better be really freaking impressive. Otherwise all that talk about the Justice League movie, that's gone in a heartbeat.

Now to be fair, at the very least we can pretty much all agree that it was largely Hollywood Politics that caused this to happen. Ben Affleck is one of the most influential people in the Industry. So when he says he's willing to be in your movie, you don't say no.

 

[Moneyy]

Honestly, people are overreacting and just jumping on the "I hate Affleck" bandwagon. Personally, I do not think that Affleck is the best man for the job, but what's done is done. I'm going to at least give the guy a chance considering that he is an accomplished and mostly successful actor.

 

[Latch]

How to ruin the Batman Series featuring Ben Affleck.

There were plenty of better options than this, sorry.

 

[Hey Micky!]

I see Ben Affleck being a wealthy guy, not Bruce Wayne. That's the problem. I'm certain that Ben Affleck is capable of playing the character well. But the problem is, it's very hard for me to imagine that this is Batman/Bruce Wayne (let alone an older Batman/Bruce Wayne), just as it was hard to imagine that he was any other character he's played in the past. I'm not saying he's turned in bad performances. I'm just saying that it's not easy to sell me on a character when Ben Affleck is playing said character.

I won't lie, I measure my "Bruce Wayne" interpretation by Bale's most recent performance rather than by the comics/cartoons/etc. But from measuring it against Bale, I think he's a mature enough actor to pull that off. But I see what you mean (which is kind of a separate thing) in the sense of Ben Affleck's got the same problem Cruise, Pitt, etc. have where their face and persona is recognisable enough to be associated with the actor rather than the character.

I find it hard to believe though that he scored the role on politics though. WB is hardly some small studio that can be sunk by one man.

 

[The Doctor]

How to ruin the Batman Series featuring Ben Affleck.

There were plenty of better options than this, sorry.

He's the Batman you deserve, not the Batman you want.

 

[1rkhachatryan]

Calm down guys, it is someone totally different playing Batman in the Justice League movie...

Also after Bales HORRIBLE Batman voice, I am thankful someone new is playing him.

Although the weird part about the Justice League movie is that it is mostly a bunch of unknown actors outside of Henry, Stephan, and Alexander.

 

[I-am-the-peel]

Well, at least he'll be writing some parts of the script, meaning he'll be writing his own dialogue and character portrayal instead of David S. Goyer, so he isn't seen as a Bale duplicate.

Personally, yes I am annoyed that he will be Batman out of all famed actors in their 40s, and yes I do believe it is just because he is well known for acting, movie directing and writing, but I honestly don't see the point in growing frustrated at all of this, because this is probably the only best super-hero team up with DC that we'll actually get.

The Justice League movie will always be doomed unless WB want to give more focus on characters like Flash and Aquaman and give them their own movies, otherwise it really will just be "Batman and his super-friends". Throughout the whole movie, unless there is good writing, a balance of humour and seriousness, and if there are scenarios where Superman is powerless to ____ and only other JL members like Cyborg or Wonder Woman can accomplish it, then the movie will always fail. For Marvel, none of the heroes in Avenger's Assemble are overpowered compared to others within the team, have almost equal popularity amongst each other (Iron Man proably is the most popular and others likely don't care for Hawkeye, but the rest of the team do receive their own equal popularity) and have reasonable explanations as to how they can exist in the same universe.

With this new DCCU, it is different. Superman is apparently the first ever established hero in the series, and his presence will apparently encourage other heroes to rise to the challenge of defending Earth, yet we are going to have a Batman in his 40s, who has apparently being experienced as a hero for years, therefore meaning Superman is not the first chronologically hero to be established in this universe. Complete nonsense.

This film will likely be a hit next July, but it won't help to build up the DCCU. Not only does it receive inspiration from the Dark Knight Returns book (Which was also used for The Dark Knight Rises), but Chris Nolan is still weighing in on it and still has influence on the new character at WB, meaning he'll still be a very realistic regardless which doesn't work with future DC characters that aren't realistic like Cyborg and Green Lantern (The latter I hope is not used for the JL movie).

Overall, this film will work, to an extent, and will be popular to the film's audience in July, but it will not be a film that'll help build up the DCCU like Captain America: The First Avenger and Thor.

 

[Mister_SGG]

I voted yes on the poll lol but it isn't that big of a deal. As awesome at it would have been, Christian Bale was never going to be in MoS 2 because Nolan's series is independent. The trilogy is complete and stretching the story for Batman to come out of retirement AGAIN would needlessly tarnish those three standalone masterpieces. Time to give someone another shot at portraying the Dark Knight (on a side note, I'm aware Heath Ledger obviously wouldn't be able to play the Joker again but that is a recast I wouldn't be able to get over). The only reason people are freaking out over this casting is because we saw a great performance from a different actor in the same role barely a year ago. If they had announced this five/ten years after TDK trilogy ended, the backlash wouldn't be so severe.

 

[Joltik-Kid]

All I'll see is Ben Affleck in a cowl... that's basically it

 

[Heldigunner1]

as of now, I don't like the casting call. However, if this will have anything to do with the JLA movie it might not be bad. The character of batman is gonna be different from what we're used to, I think. Yes batman is still batman and there for is still a bad ***, but next to the other characters in the JLA (superman,flash,martian manhunter, etc) who are almost gods it may be hard for them to really let batman shine in the movie. If they gave him the leadership role, and showed how good of a strategist batman is, that could be cool.

Affleck can do the strategist roles pretty well.

 

[The Unknown Twinkie]

Also after Bales HORRIBLE Batman voice, I am thankful someone new is playing him.

Horrible voice??? Dude that's called ACTING. He uses that voice as batman to cover the fact that he's Bruce Wayne duh. Because if he speaks normally(AKA Bruce voice as batman voice) people would find out that Bruce is Batman.

 

[Zoruagible]

I haven't seen any of his previous films so I'm willing to give him a chance

 

[Steampunk]

Not exactly ticked that they got Affleck, but I am cheezed that they changed the actors at all. Its like Hulk in Avengers, i don't mind the new guy they got, but just keep the old guy XD

 

[The Doctor]

Not exactly ticked that they got Affleck, but I am cheezed that they changed the actors at all. Its like Hulk in Avengers, i don't mind the new guy they got, but just keep the old guy XD

Christian Bale didn't want to do another film as Batman. That's it. He and Nolan insisted on keeping The Dark Knight Trilogy separate from any other superhero franchise.

 

[jaybird]

Personally, I think that everyone needs to calm down about this. For a few reasons.

Reason #1: Man of Steel actually wasn't that bad of a movie. In fact, I think it's one of the best comic book adaptations I've seen in a while, when you consider the fact that a majority of the inspiration for that movie came from the 1986 Post-Crisis version of Superman, whereas the original Christopher Reeve/Richard Donner movie (and the sequels that followed and Superman Returns to a point) were based on Pre-Crisis Silver Age Superman. Man of Steel wasn't a Michael Bay style all-style, no substance sort of movie. It had substance and heart, it was just a different Superman that audiences who don't read the comics weren't used to seeing. Also, to those of you complaining about what Superman did to General Zod at the end of Man of Steel, in Superman Volume 2, Issue #22 Superman did much worse to Zod when he didn't just kill Zod, he executed Zod, and his army. Zod in Man of Steel got a much less brutal death, at least Superman in that movie tried to give him a chance to surrender before he snapped Zod's neck in order to save that family. Plus, there was really no other way out, Zod was a rabid dog, there was no prison on Earth that would have been able to hold him, and the Phantom Zone was closed with no way to re-open it. And to those who still complain that Superman didn't care about saving people in that movie, bull, he saved those people on the oil rig, he saved that Air Force helicopter gunman that fell out of his helicopter during Zod's attack on Smallville, he saved his mother, and he RISKED HIS LIFE TO DESTROY A MACHINE THAT WOULD HAVE KILLED EVERYONE ON EARTH! Now, most people will try to counter this argument by saying that he didn't try to save anyone in Metropolis when he was fighting Zod at the end, to which I point out a few things. One, he saved that aforementioned family from becoming barbecued by Zod's heat vision. Two, Metropolis had been mostly evacuated, and there were no people in those buildings that Superman was knocking Zod into. Three, he did try to move the fight away from Metropolis when he knocked Zod into space, but Zod knocked him back down to Earth, since Zod wanted the battle to remain in Metropolis. Four, if there were any civilians caught in the crossfire, if Superman had tried to take attention away from Zod in order to save them, Zod would have taken advantage of that to either whup Superman some more, or to kill more civilians. Five, Superman was very green and unexperienced in this movie, whereas Zod and his army had military training.

Now, that I have said my two cents on Man of Steel, a movie I have enjoyed and consider to be the best Superman movie since the 1978 Richard Donner film, onto Ben Affleck as Batman.

Reason #2: Okay, I will admit, when I first heard that Ben Affleck was going to play Batman, I was a little bit skeptical. I am not an Affleck hater, as I have always considered him to be an underrated actor, even during that period ten years ago when it was popular to hate him and anything that he was in. I'm one of the few people who thinks that Daredevil actually wasn't that bad of an adaptation, yes it had problems, but Ben Affleck was by far the least of them. I have yet to see the Mark Steven Johnson Director's Cut, but I have been told that it is a vast improvement over the theatrical version. However, after giving it a lot of thought, I'm actually sold by the idea.

First of all, I don't think there has actually been an actor who has portrayed the definitive Batman yet on film. Michael Keaton was a good Batman, but he wasn't the best Bruce Wayne, whereas Christian Bale was a good Bruce Wayne, but should have done better as Batman in retrospect. Especially with that voice he did in The Dark Knight Trilogy that everyone has made fun of. (Don't deny it, come on, everyone has made a Christian Bale Batman voice joke, or at least tried their best to do a humorous impression of it.) We might actually with Affleck get an actor who can play both roles well. And before you say that Affleck is a bad actor, he has had some very good performances over the years, his performances in Good Will Hunting and Argo, which he also directed, are examples of good performances from Affleck. (I have yet to see The Town, but I'm told that his performance in that is great as well.)

Second of all, a few months ago, I purchased the complete DVD boxset of Batman: The Animated Series, and after looking at the way that Bruce Wayne was drawn in that cartoon, he actually does have a Ben Affleck look to him. Seriously, do a side-by-side comparsion using Google Image Search, you'll see a lot of physical similarities. Besides, Ben Affleck is a Caucasian man with a strong chin (trying not to sound racist when I say that) so he already has the only true physical requirement to play Batman outside of physique, which he will no doubt work out a lot at the gym to achieve.

Third of all, when it comes to Batman in movies, casting has always had a habit of being controversial and yet working out for the better. Three good examples of this include the aforementiond Michael Keaton in Tim Burton's Batman and Batman Returns (I know I said he wasn't the best Bruce Wayne, but I more blame Tim Burton for not getting Bruce Wayne, not Keaton.), Heath Ledger as The Joker in The Dark Knight (seriously, does anybody remember how everyone complained about how that wasn't going to work and that Ledger would suck?) and last, but not least, Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle/Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises. (I still think, adaptation-wise, she's the best on-screen live-action Catwoman). That's a three-for-three record, so I'm not getting my britches in a buch about it, especially since we haven't seen any shots of Affleck as Batman or even seen a freaking trailer yet.

Fourth, and finally, Affleck has a lot of supporters besides me as him as Batman. So far, Adam West (Batman from the 1960's Batman TV show and the movie spin-off), Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, and Christian Bale (George Clooney refused to comment on anything Batman, and can you really blame him? I mean, I think he could have made a good Batman if he was in a different type of movie than Batman and Robin ended up being.) have showed support for Affleck as Batman, as has Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Gordon-Levitt is my all-time favorite actor, but there is no way I would want to see him as Batman, though I would have loved to see a Nightwing spin-off from The Dark Knight Rises) and even big-time Hollywood comic book geeks Kevin Smith and Joss Whedon support Ben Affleck as Batman. (Smith and Whedon also loved Man of Steel as well, and have defended it from it's critics, being the big comic book nerds that they are.)

Seriously, I think that the majority of this thread is being unfair and prejudgmental. At least wait for a picture of Affleck as the Caped Crusader, or hell, a trailer, before you start judging. If Affleck is great and turns out to be the best on-film Batman to date, then everyone wins! We can get future DC movies and the Justice League movie. And if Affleck totally sucks, (which I think he won't) well, then guess what? The world will move on. Remember, there are a lot more pressing problems to deal with than "OMG OH NOOOOOOEZ! BEN AFFLECK IS GOING TO RUIN BATMAN!" in the world. (Need I remind you that the whole world is in debt, people still struggle to get a decent job, the government shutdown, and the things that happened in Egypt and Syria back when this news was first announced?)

Calm down, people, please!

 

[CMDShift4]

Bale didn't want to do more Batman.

Give the guy a chance at least. I'm sure people were pretty doubtful when it was announced Heath Ledger was to portray The Joker.

It may not be this bad with Chris Evans, but remember when a lot of people were furious with him when Marvel announced that he'll be playing as Cap.

I, for one would like to give Ben Affleck a chance.

Horrible voice??? Dude that's called ACTING. He uses that voice as batman to cover the fact that he's Bruce Wayne duh. Because if he speaks normally(AKA Bruce voice as batman voice) people would find out that Bruce is Batman.

Stephen Amell uses a different voice as well in Arrow

Reason #1: Man of Steel actually wasn't that bad of a movie. In fact, I think it's one of the best comic book adaptations I've seen in a while....

It wasn't a bad movie in the first place. But yes, bless you for having a better perspective of the film.

 

[1rkhachatryan]

Horrible voice??? Dude that's called ACTING. He uses that voice as batman to cover the fact that he's Bruce Wayne duh. Because if he speaks normally(AKA Bruce voice as batman voice) people would find out that Bruce is Batman.

Ya and he could of used better one. Batman in the cartoons sounds a lot better then Batman ever did in Dark Night.