Hollywood has gotten really into superhero movies in the past few years; so much so that movie production companies have taken to rebooting franchises that have hardly had time to collect any dust. Spiderman and Superman have both received new life in the last year, and now a new Batman film will join the ranks, separate from Christopher Nolan’s trilogy that concluded just about a year ago.
Since Christian Bale has reportedly refused the role, insisting that his run as Bruce Wayne will be contained to Nolan’s vision of the character, the “new” Batman is to be played by none other than Ben Affleck. This decision has a lot of people up in arms. A petition started via change.org has begun making rounds. It currently has upwards of 89,000 signatures. The maker of the petition claims that “[Ben Affleck’s] acting skill is not even close to being believable as Bruce Wayne and he won’t do the role justice.” It appears, judging by the comment section of the petition site, that many of those opposed to Affleck’s choice as the new Caped Crusader point towards his performance as Marvel’s Daredevil in the 2003 flop as reason enough to doubt his superhero acting abilities. But is this a good enough reason to be hating on Ben Affleck?
Comedian Patton Oswalt defended Affleck’s casting via his Facebook page, stating, “…Yeah, the dude’s made some bad films. Every actor has. Every actor does. Every actor will. It’s a huge, arcing career and NO ONE has control over where it goes. Movie to movie, year to year, you’re collaborating and trying and risking and, sometimes, yes–failing.” Oswalt has a point.
Affleck’s not just some Joe Schmo off the street they’re throwing into an iconic role. He does have some serious cred in the movie industry as a two-time Academy-Award winning writer and producer. Argo, which Affleck produced and starred in, took home the Oscar for Best Picture just last year.
People had very similar complaints in 2006 about Heath Ledger’s role as the Joker in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. Businessinsider.com reminds us that many reacted poorly to the decision to cast Ledger as the iconic character, and quotes one blogger who believed Ledger was “not exactly comic-book material, and he has to fill the impossible-to-fill shoes of Jack Nicholson, who will always be the guy most associated with The Joker.” Turns out, Heath Ledger’s Joker was so phenomenally played that he received an Oscar for the performance, making The Dark Knight the first superhero movie ever to win an award for its acting.
Replace “the Joker” with “Batman” and Jack Nicholson with Christian Bale, and I think we’re starting to see history repeat itself. Ben Affleck might not be worthy of an Oscar, but we won’t know unless we give him a shot. Batman is a beloved character, and it becomes difficult to trust new faces to portray characters we’ve come to love played by a particular actor.
I can understand the fans concerns about Affleck taking on one of the most popular superheroes of all time, but Christian Bale was not the first Batman nor will he be the last. Plenty of Hollywood icons such as: Avengers director Joss Whedon, actor Matt Damon and even three previous batmen (Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, and Adam West) have mentioned in interviews that Affleck is the right man for the job. Why shouldn’t we believe he’s the best choice to play Gotham’s most famous hero? I say we give him a chance to show us what he’s made of.
Samantha Bloom can be reached at samantha.bloom@spartans.ut.edu