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Ben Affleck Is The New Batman

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S

Screaming Meat

Unconfirmed Member
Szu said:
He got fat...again.
o-DAVID-O-RUSSELL-AMERICAN-HUSTLE-570.jpg
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Jeremy Renner's face is so squishy and punchable.
 
V

Vinci

Danish
Would've preferred a lesser known actor, honestly. Someone I haven't seen for years and know every nuance of performances they're capable of.
 
D

daviyoung

Banned
Blader said:
I don't think the Ledger comparisons are really fair here.

For one thing, Ledger's Joker is a kind of lightning-in-a-bottle performance. You're rarely going to have an actor, especially in a genre film like this, knock it out of the park like he did.

Secondly, Affleck has a much bigger, more well-known persona than Ledger did. Whether by virtue of acting talent or just not being as big a public name, Ledger disappears into roles. Whereas Affleck, whether good or bad, is always very obviously Ben Affleck. The same way George Clooney in a movie is always George Clooney in a movie. Affleck is a solid actor who has turned his career around in a big way, and he's more than capable of great performances. But he'll always be Ben Affleck in a costume. You're not going to forget he's there the same way people forget Ledger is there in TDK.
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I offer a different hypothesis, because everyone thought the same thing about Ledger before they saw his performance. It had little to do with the actor, and was more about the role they were given.

The Joker role is a fun one that really lets an actor show off. It was one that Ledger, rightly, treated with respect and gave it his all. And it shows. The role of Batman is a different kettle of fish that I don't think anyone outside of Keaton has treated with the verve that Ledger treated his villain
 
S

SteveWD40

Member
Not sure if it's been mentioned, but Affleck was also up for Batman when they were looking into doing Batman Year One, Aronofskys script. It was him, Wes Bentley (big at the time) and Bale in the final 3 iirc, before it became Begins.
 
N

neorej

ERMYGERD!
Blader said:
I don't think the Ledger comparisons are really fair here.

For one thing, Ledger's Joker is a kind of lightning-in-a-bottle performance. You're rarely going to have an actor, especially in a genre film like this, knock it out of the park like he did.
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I disagree. There have been countless times where the actor dissapears and the character fully comes to life: Christophe Waltz in Inglorious Basterds, Robert DeNiro in Taxidriver, Al Pacino in just about anything. I don't want to take anything away from Ledger's performance, it was stellar, but to say it was lightning in a bottle is to sell other actors short.
Secondly, Affleck has a much bigger, more well-known persona than Ledger did. Whether by virtue of acting talent or just not being as big a public name, Ledger disappears into roles.
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Have you seen A Knight's Tale? Brokeback Mountain? Ledger was out there. He didn't dissapear, hell for Knight, he needed to be there as the key-Pretty Boy role. Hate on Affleck what you want, but he fucking nailed Argo and, to quote my favorite movie-critic: "Affleck was the bomb in Phantoms".
 
A

Ahasverus

Member
George Clooney was a better Batman/Wayne overall.

COME AT ME!
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You're high

Xamdou said:
Are you seriously putting her in the same league as Heath Ledger's Joker? She was a terrible Catwoman, and is nowhere near Michelle Pfeiffer's great performance.
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Miles Quaritch said:
She was a terrible Catwoman though. Terrible.
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What the hell, she was critically aclaimed as the best part of the movie, and I agree. FLAWLESS Catwoman.
 
B

Blader

Member
neorej said:
I disagree. There have been countless times where the actor dissapears and the character fully comes to life: Christophe Waltz in Inglorious Basterds, Robert DeNiro in Taxidriver, Al Pacino in just about anything. I don't want to take anything away from Ledger's performance, it was stellar, but to say it was lightning in a bottle is to sell other actors short.
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I'm not saying no one else can do it, there are plenty of actors who disappear into their roles. What am I saying is that it's not all that common. Travis Bickle, Vito Corleone, Daniel Plainview, etc. are hardly typical Hollywood performances.

And regardless, my point was that Affleck isn't really capable of that because he's always very obviously Ben Affleck. He's done plenty of good work but he doesn't exactly disappear into his roles the way DeNiro, Pacino, DDL, or Hackman do.
 
E

EMBee99

all that he wants is another baby
If there's one area that folks really can't knock Nolan for, it's casting. Everyone cast in the DC films has always met with controversy on the initial news then blew everyone away when the film released (Ledger, Hathaway, Hardy, etc).

If they cast Affleck, I think they know what they're looking for.

Also, they've been clear that Dark Knight Returns is inspiration for the film and it won't be a beat-for-beat retelling of the story. Batman will be older, sure, but not the grizzled insaniac he was in the comic.

I will bet that Affleck disappears into the role and serves a lot of crow to people when the film is released. Save this for quoting next year if I'm wrong.
 
S

Screaming Meat

Unconfirmed Member
EMBee99 said:
If there's one area that folks really can't knock Nolan for, it's casting. Everyone cast in the DC films has always met with controversy on the initial news then blew everyone away when the film released (Ledger, Hathaway, Hardy, etc).

If they cast Affleck, I think they know what they're looking for.

Also, they've been clear that Dark Knight Returns is inspiration for the film and it won't be a beat-for-beat retelling of the story. Batman will be older, sure, but not the grizzled insaniac he was in the comic.

I will bet that Affleck disappears into the role and serves a lot of crow to people when the film is released. Save this for quoting next year if I'm wrong.
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Is Nolan involved with this?
 
E

effzee

Member
Saw this news as I was going to bed last night and was so tired that even Batman news couldn't keep me up to discuss.

I don't know how to feel about this. On the one hand I do think he has improved as an actor and do think he is a great director. Just that I would be super ecstatic if he was directing and someone else was playing Batman. Of course it could work.

Right now I can't imagine him in the Batman costume but we don't know how it will look. I keep picturing how silly he looked as Daredevil and how even Clooney didn't fit correctly into the mask. Bale's face was perfect in that you could believe it wasn't him under the mask. Or maybe that was the design of the mask?

Another thing is I don't think he brings the level of believable physicality that Bale did.

Overall I am baffled by this decision. Guy can act and it all depends on the design of the suit + mask and what they ask him to do. I guess a lot of the action will be computer generated.

I hate being part of the negative pessimistic posters here on GAF but for now I am concerned. Still excited to see how it turns out but worried.
 
Vestal

Vestal

Junior Member
AkuMifune said:
I like Ben Affleck. But he's too Ben Affleck to be Batman. There's too much Ben Affleck stigma. He's going to get his Ben Affleck cooties all over that Batsuit.

This just went into Schumacher territory. Again.
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the issue is he has always been cast the same way.

Its wait and see for me. I mean Jim Carrey was always cast as a goof ball and then Truman Show and Man on the Moon happened.

I think he can pull it off. But to me best batman will always be Keaton.
 
C

cynostic

Member
Not sure how to feel about this. I want to hate, because it's him, but then the whole Heath Ledger thing... Maybe we'll be pleasantly surprised again, eh? I just think he's so goofy though.
 
ElRenoRaven

ElRenoRaven

Member
daviyoung said:
I offer a different hypothesis, because everyone thought the same thing about Ledger before they saw his performance. It had little to do with the actor, and was more about the role they were given.

The Joker role is a fun one that really lets an actor show off. It was one that Ledger, rightly, treated with respect and gave it his all. And it shows. The role of Batman is a different kettle of fish that I don't think anyone outside of Keaton has treated with the verve that Ledger treated his villain
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Yup. Keaton may be a known asshole but he nailed Batman I thought. To this day I prefer his Batman to anyones.
 
J

Jason's Ultimatum

Member
I agree about the memorable lines that Jonah came up with. The first half of BB with Bale and Neeson was great, especially the training montage.

My anger ouweighs my guilt.
 
Vestal

Vestal

Junior Member
PsychoRaven said:
Yup. Keaton may be a known asshole but he nailed Batman I thought. To this day I prefer his Batman to anyones.
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his role was definitely different from anyone elses Batman.

I think he modeled his Wayne from the TV series, basically leaving out the smugness that Kilmer sort of incorporated and Bale overplayed. It was a good idea too since most of the general audience only knew with TV Batman back then.

In a way that is why I believe Man of Steel suffered. They went too far away from the Reeves Superman which turned a lot of people off. The Reeves Superman is still seen as the best Superhero casting and performance along with RDJ and Keaton.
 
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