In Defence Of Ben Affleck

As the world turns their back on Ben Affleck I figured I could take a more defensive stance of the casting choice to make him the next Batman.


Those of you who follow the news regarding the upcoming Man of Steel 2 obviously already know this but for those of you don’t, here’s the gist.

Ben Affleck is apparently being cast as Batman in the upcoming sequel to the blockbuster superhero film Man of Steel and people are outraged motherfucking furious. By people, I of course mean those who care as I’m sure there’s plenty of people who don’t care but since they didn’t care before and won’t care much after this anyway I don’t really see any reason to include them in this equation.

Now whilst I understand many of the reasons for the outrage — I too reacted with “You’re kidding me, right. Right?” when I first heard it — I don’t sympathise with this apparent notion that “anyone else” would make a better Batman.

“Well no, a duck would not make a better Batman. That’s just disrespectful to Mr. Affleck and his acting career.”

This nicely brings me to Mr. Affleck and his acting career and specifically his previous attempt at a superhero film with “Daredevil” from 2003, starring our lovely Ben Affleck as Matt Murdock and Jennifer Garner as Elektra. This turd of a film — I’ve seen it a few times and its 5.4 rating at IMDB is well “earned” — is a good reason to be sceptical towards Mr. Snyder’s casting choice.

With other “hits” such as “Gigli” and “Jersey Girl” I don’t argue with anyone claiming that Ben Affleck has a dubious past when it comes to character portrayal. What I’m saying is that Ben has — sometimes — shown the depth of a layer of butter on toast, which is not very much.

To me — whom I’ve rambled on about before — Batman is a character with a lot of depth. Sure he’s brooding and a bit emo at times but he’s also deeply conflicted, something which no one — not even Christian Bale — has managed to get across effectively.

But the “Daredevil” fiasco was over 10 years ago and people can evolve since and I would like to think hope that Ben Affleck has evolved, as an actor, since. Looking at his more recent track record and specifically “Argo” one can at least see that there’s some potential, whether that’s enough remains to see.

And well, if nothing else… I don’t think he can make a dumber Batman voice than Christian Bale so that’s at least something.

…

There you have it, Mr. Affleck, don’t do the stupid voice. Listen to Kevin Conroy, he gets the voice right and be inspired.