Ben Affleck as Batman

I'm sure most of us are tired of talking about this already, but I'm posting about it anyway. Deal with it.

I'm not overly enthused about this casting choice. I don't have anything against Affleck and as an actor I think he's fine, but I do feel he's lacking the badass persona needed to portray Batman. Will he do an "okay" job? Probably. Will he be a fantastic Batman? Ehh... probably not.

Don't get me wrong- I'll still see the movie and I will hope beyond hope that he pulls this role off. I just hope he does "Batman" justice. I fear that Batman will be completely overshadowed by Superman, and that would be highly disappointing.

What are your thoughts?

I didn't know about a new Batman movie. I especially didn't know about Ben Affleck being cast as the new Batman. I'm with you on this one Kylee, whilst I'm a fan of Ben Affleck's work, I just don't think he fits the role. My favourite Batman was actually the first, Micheal Keaton and I also thought Val Kilmer pulled it off, just. Since then however, I kind of lost interest. Too many different actors but I hope I'm wrong about Ben Affleck, playing the Phantom did zero for Billy Zane's career, let's hope Benny boy can do a lot better!

I don't like the casting choice too much either, but he might be able to pull it off. When Michael Keaton was cast as Batman, a lot of people thought it was a bad choice, but he did a great job imo.

As far as Affleck goes, I think he would've been a better choice to play as Robin (but he's a little too old to play Robin now).

I really liked Christian Bale as Batman, and I thought Brandon Routh as Superman was PERFECT. I hate it when they have good people to play superheroes, then decide to get someone else the next movie. meh...

But let's face it. As far as Batman is concerned, no one beats Adam West.

tduz said:

I didn't know about a new Batman movie. I especially didn't know about Ben Affleck being cast as the new Batman. I'm with you on this one Kylee, whilst I'm a fan of Ben Affleck's work, I just don't think he fits the role. My favourite Batman was actually the first, Micheal Keaton and I also thought Val Kilmer pulled it off, just. Since then however, I kind of lost interest. Too many different actors but I hope I'm wrong about Ben Affleck, playing the Phantom did zero for Billy Zane's career, let's hope Benny boy can do a lot better!

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It's not a new Batman movie, he'll be portraying Batman within the new Man of Steel. So that's one thing he has going for him... he won't be the main point of focus. I think he'd be much worse off if it was an actual Batman movie.

Medea said:

I don't like the casting choice too much either, but he might be able to pull it off. When Michael Keaton was cast as Batman, a lot of people thought it was a bad choice, but he did a great job imo.

As far as Affleck goes, I think he would've been a better choice to play as Robin (but he's a little too old to play Robin now).

I really liked Christian Bale as Batman, and I thought Brandon Routh as Superman was PERFECT. I hate it when they have good people to play superheroes, then decide to get someone else the next movie. meh...

But let's face it. As far as Batman is concerned, no one beats Adam West.

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Great minds think alike, lady. I actually thought of him as Robin when I heard the news, too. I liked Christian Bale a lot too. I think it's going to be really odd seeing Affleck (or ANYONE for that matter) as Batman when TDK trilogy is still so fresh in everyone's minds. I love Adam West in general... I always crack up at his character on Family Guy.

I was discussing this with some co-workers earlier, and I mentioned how awesome/funny it would've been if they cast the dude who played Bane as Batman. For one, I honestly think he could pull it off. Aside from that the irony of him playing Batman would've been fantastic.

That's not too bad then. Maybe a cameo from someone who's already played Batman would've been a better idea.

tduz, I agree. I would've preferred Christian Bale since his role was so recent, and I just really liked him as Batman.

Like I said I have nothing against Affleck, the casting choice just seemed super random. I think he's going to help direct the movie though, which could turn out to be a good thing.

I don't think he's a good choice. I'm not even that familiar with Affleck's work except Pearl Harbour, Armageddon and Dare Devil (I haven't watched ANY of those movies all the way through, I just watched bits and pieces of them and he didn't exactly capture my interest) he just doesn't strike me as a Batman. Nothing moody or imposing about him. I heard they wanted to feature an older Batman, but I was picturing someone a bit more rough and rugged, like maybe Liev Schreiber.

I didn't even consider the "moody" aspect, sticky runes... that's an excellent point. Affleck definitely doesn't strike me as the brooding, masculine type.

Terrible choice, so bad. Who is casting these people? I'm a pretty big Batman fan so this kinda urks me. WE ALL REMEMBER DAREDEVIL DON'T WE!? I can only think of one movie where I thought Ben Affleck was good, and that was The Town.

I like Christian Bale as Batman except for his voice. The voice he does is terrible, like a 60-year old with emphysema from smoking for decades.

But wait, he's only cast for the new Man of Steel movie. I seen the first one, and it sucked. So I guess this casting choice seems appropriate for the sequel. When I first heard of this, I thought it was for the Christopher Nolan series of Batman films ... and that would've just killed me.

Yeah, I think Bale pulled off Batman physically, I found him believable as this guy who had been through relentless training to become the perfect hero, but the voice was a bit too silly. Look how many videos and cartoons there are on youtube taking the piss out of it! I love Michael Keatons Batman voice, it was like a whisper, but not one of those annoying whispers that some voice actors have, it was like this voice coming out of the shadows, and he didn't even speak that much as Batman, but Bales Batman had quite a lot of dialogue, and hearing it in that voice was weird. I was like, just shut up and beat up the bad guys, please.

I did enjoy Man of Steel, but for a fresh start/new intro to the superhero, I thought it was a bit over the top. They already destroyed half of Metropolis, and it was the kind of thing I would have expected to come later on in a sequel. Feels like they're rushing through it. I am interested to see how Batman would respond to something like this happening, since Batman normally deals with psychotic human villains - bad guys on his own turf - and now it turns out there are threats from other worlds, so having these two different types of heroes clashing is very exciting for me, I just wish I could be more enthusiastic about the casting choice.

They shoulda just cast Bale as Batman's physical appearance and dubbed over with Kevin Conroy. Instant amazing.

The action scenes in Man of Steel were great, really, and I liked the fresh perspective on Superman they showed, the guy looked the part. HOWEVER, the dialogue and some of the actors were cheesy, awkward and didn't seem like they knew what they were doing. For me, that's half the movie and action scenes alone won't make up for that. That's probably why I think The Dark Knight was probably one of my favourite superhero movies of all time.

I'm surprised by all the Affleck dislike. growing up with the comics (Both old and new) I think he'll do just fine. Batman himself isn't this overly masculine type that the movie's make him be. That's personally my major dislike with TDK frachise.

Bruce Wayne has always been a man with a dark secret, and on the outside Bruce himself plays the role of a rich, mysterious, charismatic business man who sleeps with women while inside he's a tortured soul and the world's greatest detective. Acting as batman? That's the easy part, you put on a Mask, and act like the dark hero. (And in Bale's case, that horrible voice.)

For me? Batman is about BRUCE WAYNE. Batman is relatable because of Bruce. It's his Detective skills, charisma and will power that makes Bruce who he is and able to don the mask of Batman. I think that Ben can pull off an incredible Bruce wayne. Bale's Bruce in my opinion never did the comic Bruce Wayne justice.

That's my two cents anyway. Odds are we won't even see Bruce Wayne much enough. Batman is the easy part of the role, for me. Bruce Wayne is where you can make me believe you have a reason to BE The Batman.

Crooksin said:

They shoulda just cast Bale as Batman's physical appearance and dubbed over with Kevin Conroy. Instant amazing.

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I don't really like different voices for a live action performance, though. OK if it's some sort of creature, like the witch king in the Lord of the Rings films where you don't even see the actor's face, but for a superhero I'd rather it was 100% the same actor (even if the voice does sound daft, I appreciate the honesty) But they definitely could have changed Bane's voice.

sticky runes said:

Crooksin said:

They shoulda just cast Bale as Batman's physical appearance and dubbed over with Kevin Conroy. Instant amazing.

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I don't really like different voices for a live action performance, though. OK if it's some sort of creature, like the witch king in the Lord of the Rings films where you don't even see the actor's face, but for a superhero I'd rather it was 100% the same actor (even if the voice does sound daft, I appreciate the honesty) But they definitely could have changed Bane's voice.

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With CGI I'm sure they could make the voice dubb almost flawless. And yeah definitely agree with Bane, his voice ruined any cool factor he had and its a shame because I liked where he was going with his crime wave.

Crooksin said:

With CGI I'm sure they could make the voice dubb almost flawless. And yeah definitely agree with Bane, his voice ruined any cool factor he had and its a shame because I liked where he was going with his crime wave.

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Again - using someone elses voice over another actor's physical performance just doesn't seem right. For an animated or supernatural character, yes, but batman is a very human superhero so it's best to keep it as "real" as possible and just have the same actor doing everything Batman does (except really dangerous stunts of course)
It makes sense that the Arkham video games used Kevin Conroy and other voice actors from the animated series because the video games are all animated any way, and its nice to have that connection and familiarity from the cartoons, but a live action version should keep it as organic and real as possible, plus it's ideally the actor's personal interpretation of the character.

I quite like what they do in the Arrow TV series, where Oliver uses that device to deepen his voice when he is talking to someone he knows, so they don't recognize him (I'm sure it's a gadget that gets used in the real world, I just don't know what it's called!) But then, something like that would probably also disconnect the audience from the actor's performance, because it comes out distorted and unnatural.

you know , when i found out anna is going to play as catwoman , i said no it won't work , same when i heard tom hardy is going to be bane

but they all did amazing job , i still have some hope , maybe he can pull it off

The uproar for Heath playing Joker was 10x worse than this, and he pulled off the role of a lifetime.

Also, don't forget that the guy that wrote/directed Daredevil also wrote/directed Simon Birch and wrote Grumpy Old Men 1 & 2, so he shouldn't have gotten the chance to do DD in the first place. That movie wasn't Ben's fault.

I know he's not directing it, but Ben had cemented himself as a great director, and hopefully, will have input on the character he is playing, not to mention the fact that he is still good friends with Kevin Smith, who will obviously have something to say to him about playing The Dark Knight.

All of this goes along with the fact that they are working with Snyder and Nolan. These aren't the Joel Schumacher days of Batman having nipples anymore. He'll be fine.

Judas, your signature is perfect for this thread.

When I made it that, I knew it was for a reason haha

How dare they cast as a Bruce Wayne a 6'3" handsome, muscular, intelligent, wealthy man with a string of past beautiful girlfriends? He is nothing like Bruce Wayne.

The criticisms of the casting choice are largely irrational, ignorant and/or idiotic. Ben Affleck is an accomplished actor whose roles have displayed a fair amount of range. He's capable of playing the role. It's just a matter of whether the quality of the production, direction and screenplay are good enough.