Ben-sanity

I can't remember the last time I've seen the internet have a collective freakout of the magnitude that greeted the announcement that Ben Affleck will be playing Batman in the upcoming Man of Steel sequel. Unreal. And, I think, a bit ridiculous. Of course, I should preface all this by saying what my regular readers probably know: I don't often like superhero movies. But I really don't get why everyone's so upset about this casting choice.

Ben Affleck is the star of the most recent Oscar winning Best Picture. (Argo.) The movie was fantastic, and he was good in it. It's not like he has only a string of terrible movies to his name.

Yes, he made Daredevil, and from what I hear it's terrible. (I've never seen it.) But one bad turn as a superhero should hardly disqualify you from a second chance. Chris Evans was in two bad Fantastic Four movies (again, I'm taking that on word of mouth; I've never seen them), before becoming Captain America in two fairly good superhero movies.

Lest we forget, Michael Keaton was known for comedies (and generally, not good ones) before he became Batman, and he was just fine. He's certainly not the worst to play the part. If only we'd had the internet then for geeks to rage on.

"Affleck was the bomb in Phantoms."

Now, do I wish that maybe Affleck was directing the next Superman movie rather than starring in it? Sure. But I really don't understand what has everyone so convinced that he's going to make a terrible Batman. How about we worry about whether it's going to be a terrible movie with or without his involvement? After all, Man of Steel wasn't that great, and the entire team who made it is involved in the sequel.