In Defense Of Ben Affleck As Batman
Ben Affleck getting cast as Batman in the upcoming Batman vs Superman film has–as one could easily predict–sent shock waves of rage through the internet. I get it. Really, I do. His acting credits are very mixed, with some spectacular lows dragging down many people’s view of his body of work as a whole.
But he has it in him to be a great actor when he picks the right project (admittedly, that happens a lot more rarely than one would like). I’ve hated quite a few Ben Affleck movies (or to be more blunt, I’ve hated most movies he’s been in), but I can honestly say that’s because I hated the way the films were written and directed; I don’t recall ever watching one of them and having critical feelings towards his skill in the craft of acting. Responsibility for horrendous dialogue, cliched characters, and stupefyingly dull plots doesn’t fall on an actor.
An actor’s job is to be the character the director wants in his or her film. The brutal truth is that most movies coming out of Hollywood run the gamut from just kinda shitty to spectacularly shitty; unless you’re on the radar of the few quality directors, any actor who wants to regularly work in the industry is going to do some pretty awful films.
Perhaps as indie films, crowdfunding, and alternate distribution channels continue to grow and diversify, that’s won’t be the case in the future. Maybe (hopefully) we’re nurturing a generation of creative types who can and will insist on doing movies on their own terms. But most of Ben Affleck’s films, especially the truly lambasted ones, came out long before Kickstarter was even a vague notion in the back of someone’s mind. I don’t blame him for making the decisions he did when the only two options were “arty” independent films almost nobody would ever see and Gigli*.
Ben Affleck has the chops to do justice to Batman. I hope Snyder gives him a great character to work with, combining both the aspects we’ve come to love in Batman and new nuances to this iconic character that will keep us guessing.
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* Okay, I can kinda blame him for Gigli. Plus, you probably would have felt a little cheated if I didn’t find a way to work at least one Gigli reference into this post. Maybe you won’t admit it, but you know deep down it’s totally true.
3 Comments on “In Defense Of Ben Affleck As Batman”
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Pop Culture To Die For 
Love your banner, first of all: you worked in Castiel AND a walker AND Loki? LOVE.
As for Batman – I am a huge, nitpicky, pain-in-the-ass fangirl when it comes to Batman and I have yet to really love any actor who’s played him. So I hope you’re right!
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Reblogged this on Confessions of a Pop Culture Fanatic and commented:
I’m done grumbling. Now it’s all over but the waiting…
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Thank you! My basic idea for the banner was to have a bunch of my favorites running in terror from the overenthusiastic affections of a crazed fangirl. 😉 Neither angel nor Norse god nor undead fiend is a match for a fangirl with too many feels.
As for Batman, I’m honestly more worried about Snyder. I’m pretty lukewarm to his movies in general, so I’m really hoping that an unusual casting choice like Ben Affleck means he intends to do something interesting and original with the character.
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