Batfleck - Why All the Hate?

Rumors tell tale that the sequel to Man of Steel will be a Batman vs Superman movie. If you haven't heard, Ben Affleck was cast recently into playing Batman/Bruce Wayne. In the DC Universe, Batman covers Gotham city while Superman covers Metropolis and much of the rest of the world. So it's not so weird as you might think. In the same way that the Marvel Universe has a million superheroes (X-men, Fantastic 4, Avengers, etc), the DC universe has them as well.

Anyway, the initial reactions to Affleck being cast as Batman have been negative to say the least. I have even seen a few sites that offer a top 10 list of tweets bashing the casting choice. Some of the comments are pretty funny, others just seems rude. Why all the Affleck hate? For a long time, Ben Affleck has been criticized for his acting. People usually cite Gigli as their evidence for his poor acting skills, but I've seen the guy really turn it on before. Of course, people LOVE to bring up his, probably most relevant role, Daredevil. Admittedly, the role of Daredevil was not his best.

Responses have been... interesting

I have a few ideas of my own about this. Probably my most compelling argument for Affleck: He plays a really good tortured soul. Some of the movies in which he's played a tortured soul: Argo, The Town, Chasing Amy, Dogma... etc. Even in Gigli, which was a ridiculous movie, had him playing a tortured soul - and these moments were not the worst in the film. I've watched it beginning to end, so test me if you really want to. Even Daredevil, which was a pretty bad movie, or at least not good, saw him in this same role. I think the guy knows how to play pain, and I think the guy can draw on this experience.

Experience is key here. Ben Affleck has already, essentially, played Batman from another universe: Daredevil. It doesn't take much thinking to see that Daredevil is almost the same character as Batman - each are flawed, each lost their parents, each are rich, each fight crime, etc. I like to think of his Daredevil performance as a prep course for this role as Batman. As they say, practice makes perfect.

Look! He's already got the Bat-pose!

There are a slew of reasons that have arisen after the initial backlash that support the choice of Affleck as Batman. Even as a Batman fan, I can't disagree with most of them. For one, Matt Damon supports him, and Damon has a history of making some pretty great movies. In Damon's own words "You know, he's not playing King Lear." Which is an excellent point... it'll take much more acting talent to play Bruce Wayne than Batman.

Additionally, there is a writer over at Forbes named Mark Hughes that wrote a fantastic piece about Batfleck. Of the 6 reasons he lists for Ben Affleck, I strongly agree with 2 of them. First, in becoming a director (and a successful one!), he has a different perspective on acting and what acting is used for. Now, his acting will be informed by a different perspective than before. Again, practice makes perfect. Secondly, Hughes comments that super fans have had a pretty bad track record on determining who makes a good casting choice. People didn't like Daniel Craig as the choice for James Bond. Fans didn't like Tobey McGuire as Spiderman - While I didn't like those movies, I do think he played a decent Peter Parker. Most relevantly, people hated Michael Keaton as Batman back in 1989. Even though this film didn't really feature a good Batman (he killed, like, everyone), Keaton was great in the role of Bruce Wayne. Fans are so crazy, that they even started an official petition with the White House to get the president to step in and stop the casting.

I think all these haters are judging way too quickly. I'm sitting in the "hopeful" category, and I expect that, at the very least, Ben Affleck will deliver a decent job. If I were a betting man, I'd bet money that Affleck will do a good or even great job in the role, and I'm looking forward to it.

Thoughts?

-Jack