The inescapable news of the past few weeks has been Zack Snyder’s casting of Ben Affleck as Batman (Bruce Wayne) for the upcoming 2015 sequel to the summer blockbuster “Man of Steel.”
In case you escaped your friends’ inevitable outbursts of rage or occasional meek, non-committal sentence of support on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, then you may have caught wind of the casting from your favorite news source.
In fact, no matter what news source you subscribe to—CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, BBC, The Washington Post, New York Times, even NPR—all made a centerpiece of the story. The focus of many of stories was not simply the casting itself, but the explosive response from the general public. To say that the average person was initially upset with the fact that Affleck will portray the caped crusader in the tentatively titled “Batman vs. Superman” film may yet be the understatement of the year.
There are countless posts on the internet of people declaring their dismay. There is a petition in which more than 90,000 people have voiced support in an effort to remove Affleck from the role. The outrage trended worldwide on Twitter for about three days, while most trends only last 24 hours or less.
Most people claim that they feel that Affleck simply doesn’t have the acting skills to portray the caped crusader. Others mock his Boston accent, and others simply claim that he will never live up to the performance of Christian Bale, whose version of the Batman is still fresh in many minds.
Will Affleck be as terrible as people are worried about? He has portrayed a superhero before in the 2004 film “Daredevil,” which received many negative reviews; however, many of those reviews have stated that Affleck’s character was the highlight of the otherwise dismally directed film.
If you do a Google search for Affleck as Batman, many recent articles are no longer focused on the initial rage, but on reasons why Affleck may not be such a terrible choice, indicating that the Western world may yet be warming up to the idea.
Many are quick to point out that there was also an initial outrage when Michael Keaton was chosen to play Batman in the 1989 “Batman,” or when Heath Ledger was picked to play the Joker in the 2008 film “The Dark Knight.” But, both are considered classic performances today.
For me, the outrage means something different altogether. Affleck may just be the perfect choice to portray Batman for the simple reason that no one believes that he is Batman.
It has often been wondered why no one in the comics or films realizes that Bruce Wayne is Batman, and Affleck may very well be the answer to that age-old question. Both Affleck and Wayne are arguably rich, pretty boys who donate a good portion of their money to charity.
Affleck being revealed to be Batman was met with unanimous shock and disbelief. I believe it would be much the same if it happened to Wayne in Batman’s universe, making Snyder’s choice of Affleck a stroke of immersive genius.
For a week, we experienced what it would feel like if Wayne where real and just unmasked as his alter ego. For a film to feel that real, and have such far reaching real-world repercussions two years before it even hits the big, silver screen tells you that the director knows what they’re doing.
It is important, however, to remember that this will be just a movie, and whether or not Affleck plays a powerful Batman, there are more important things in the world that deserve the headlines that this casting choice enjoyed.
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