Just when things started to look up for the whole Warner Brothers/DC Comics film franchise, a dastardly trick has been played on an unsuspecting public. Last night Variety broke the news that Warner Brothers had decided on Ben Affleck to play Batman in the next "Superman" movie; Batman vs Superman.

It's become painfully obvious that Zach Snyder, the acclaimed director of 300 and Man of Steel has been murdered by the Warner Brothers and replaced with a malfunctioning android who looks exactly like Snyder.

As you know, I was no fan of the Snyder reboot Man of Steel. Not that Zach's work is bad. On the contrary. I actually really really like his stuff. More so than most. I thought Sucker-Punch was pretty damn cool and I enjoyed Watchmen more than the comic books themselves. But I didn't think Snyder's style lent itself to the bright, cheery world of Superman.

Don't get me wrong. Affleck may very well have the chops to pull off Batman. But there's  A LOT of evidence to the contrary. First of all, he's already done a superhero; Daredevil, to minimalist success. In fact, I shouldn't even use the term "success" in that sentence, because NO ONE uses the word success when they talk about that movie. Even his voice-over in the trailer sucks. He thinks he's channeling Batman...

 

So maybe we can blame the poor performance of The Man Without Fear's movie exploits on the director, Mark Steven Johnson, who really hasn't given us anything we like (Ghost Rider, Simon Birch). But if you watch the film, Affleck is just lifeless. He displays no real acting in it, and the little non-action sequence performance he does manage to get is dreadful. His final scenes with the Kingpin and his (at the time) soon to be wife Jennifer Garner as Elektra are just painful.

There are a few things going in Affleck's favor. First of all he's a comic geek. One of the least endearing comic geeks ever, but he's one none-the-less. He's also really really good friends with Kevin Smith, arguably THE BIGGEST COMIC/FILM GEEK EVER. So I'm hoping Smith takes his old buddy/punching bag aside and gives him 'the talking-to' about Batman. He's also not such a bad actor. He's pretty good in "The Town" and he can certainly pull off the minor humor roles, as in Good Will Hunting and his numerous roles in Kevin Smith vehicles.

But in the long run, I just don't think Warner Brothers/ DC had it's head screwed on straight when they picked him. I think they were going for two reactions here;

1). Extreme and vocal Fan-Boy Rage (Mission Accomplished within seconds of the announcement)

2). Heavy press due to the fact that half the public hates Affleck and the other half thinks he's amazing (he DOES have an Oscar and a Golden Globe for ARGO, right?).

 

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