You'll probably get the feeling that this isn't going to be an especially horror-centric post and you'd be right, but with huge swathes of the internet laying into the decision to cast Ben Affleck as Batman in Zack Snyder's sequel to Man of Steel, I wanted to put by own tuppence in.
First, I was surprised. No, really surprised. In all of those inevitable discussions on who should be cast as which character, Affleck never made the table once. Not just for Batman, post Daredevil I thought that wold be it. I also admit that my dislike for Daredevil was a whole lot more to do with my ambivalence for the character, than the movie itself.
Following this announcement, my mind wandered, but had a hard time getting past Daredevil in looking for evidence of how Affleck would fare in the role, after all - Mallrats and Chasing Amy weren't really in the right territory, Paycheck sees him far more hunter than hunted and everything else that came to mind just couldn't convince me. I still wasn't opposed, but I couldn't see the wisdom.
I tried to explain to my wife, but as is so often the case had to put things in context of films she is a fan of - in this case Jersey Girl. I was still no nearer to convincing myself though, but things were starting to seep through.
I was basing so much of my concern, I think, on the fact that so many of the films I was thinking about were pre Bennifer, and darn, that was a while ago now. I looked at the slew of pictures that were circulating alongside all the "OMG Affleck!" posts and thought that, hang-on, visually he's a far better Wayne/Batman than some and in fairness, he has been known to act on occasion (he was, after all, "da bomb in Phantoms").
And then, this memory came to mind...
Hold-on a moment...
Wings! Now!
Dogma!
Lets bear in mind the way that Affleck carries most of the movie as the affable but weary Bartleby, before flipping personality into someone who is dark-edged, highly-driven.
Remind you of anyone?
I'm probably not the first to point this out and am unlikely to be the last, but I think Affleck has as good a chance as any of pulling this off, as long as he doesn't channel Nic Cage's "Big Daddy" in the process.
So yeah. Affleck. Batman.
I can probably live with that.
