Are you the kind of person who gets upset when Ben Affleck is hired to portray Batman in a movie?
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
kidding
Honestly couldn’t give a fuck.
A visiting professor once told me: “Mozart wrote an opera a week, while he was living in Italy. How many of those do you think were any good?”
I guess I don’t get the big uproar because I like Ben Affleck.
However, casting Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher was an unforgivable offense.
While watching Cruise in that movie I was reminded of the last scene in ‘Get Shorty’, where the agent asks the Travolta character why his client can’t get the role in his new movie.
‘He’s too short’
.
that was so weird on twitter yesterday.
Who’s Batman?
After Michael Keaton, George Clooney and Val Kilmer, anyone who gets upset at this is, dare I say it, batsh*t crazy.
Yeah, if you can get through Kilmer, you can get through anything.
Wait, this really happened? Wow. That’s pretty stupid.
Good thing I don’t read Batman!
No. But I will say this. I was poised to write some comment that was dripping with condescension toward those who do get upset with things like this. Then something popped into my head. It was the look of bemusement that appears on the face of my wife every September, and stays there all the way through January, as I rage, curse, twist, contort, sulk, obsess and suffer through every stupid action of my beloved NFL team.
And, you know, I suddenly realized something. I am not so different from those crazy Batman people.
I, on the other hand, am not a football fan (or a sports fan of any sort), so I have the moral standing to laugh at people who get upset about Batman!
…meh.
Besides, I get overly excited about Legend of Zelda, so I guess we’re all in the same freak boat in the end.
My 9 year old loves Ocarina of Time but is annoyed by the character Navi the fairy who constantly says “hey, listen. listen, hey”. I once made him an awesome Link costume for Halloween and there are many days when he will play Zelda “with his whole body” and I hear him saying “heyat heyat heyat” as he jumps and somersaults in the yard.
My general complaint about the movies right now is that it seems to me that the studios are looking for movies that are guaranteed to make a lot of money so they keep putting out the same movies over and over. Comic book inspired movies, remakes, batman, and such. I would like more diversity of offerings.
If you look back through film history, though, I’m not sure your complaint is really a new one. The biggest hits were consistently either based on best-selling books or on TV series. There was a period in the 70s when lots of original stuff was coming out, but that was an anomaly.
The difference today is that Hollywood wants sell to the world. It used to be that “guaranteed hit” meant “built in fanbase from a comic, videogame, book, TV series etc.” Nowadays it also means “not too much talking about complicated subjects so that it’s easy to translate to foreign audiences.”
For what it’s worth, though, I think the days of studios putting $300 million into a single movie are coming to an end due to flops like The Lone Ranger.
“For what it’s worth, though, I think the days of studios putting $300 million into a single movie are coming to an end due to flops like The Lone Ranger. “
I hope you are right about that! Actually I do enjoy some of the big budget films like the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies. I wouldn’t put all book based films in the same category as some of our great movies are book based and there are some books I would enjoy seeing on the screen, in theory anyway as the reality is often disappointing.
I guess I just really love the movies that are based in character and story. And I am partly to blame since I have stopped going to the theaters because it has gotten so expensive. We have a couple of theaters that show films after the first run in the big theaters and they charge a lot less. I will quite often see films at those theaters if it is really something that should be seen on a large screen.
I up-voted you just for the Legend of Zelda mention. 😉
Nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh.
Nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh.
No. No.
No, man.
Who isn’t?
I thought the zeitgeist required me to go berserk over the most petty new thing, but it’s hard to fit in nowadays.
Batman is my fave superhero, and I have no doubt that Ben will be magnificent.
Maybe I should get a twitter account to make my stand publicly.
I keep hoping for Gilbert Gottfried, but by now he’s too old. But I’m glad they finally cast Lee Ermey as Alfred. Long overdue.
I’m upset that Ben Affleck is portraying Batman, while the banksters that caused the crash still walk the streets as free men.
No.
Gives me a great excuse to no longer give a shit about super-hero comic book movies.
Scifi or sword and sandals stuff, now that’s a different story. If Affleck was hired to play Spock, then I’d freak out.
I’m super-upset. If you look at historical photos of the actual Bat-Man, Affleck doesn’t look anything like him. Hollywood is destroying our understanding of American history.
Nope. It’s honestly a little bit embarassing what a huge Batman fan I am, but the answer is still no.
Guess that means that Woody Allen doesn’t get a chance.
no. On the other hand, if he was going to be one of the Marvel guys – that would be an issue!
No. I never go to those movies. They are way too long. Last one I saw was the one with Heath Ledger; and, I thought the bloody thing would never end. No movie should be longer than 100 minutes–although 90 minutes is even better.
BTW, the big news for us women of a certain age is the casting of Sam Heughan as Jamie from the Outlander series. Starz is making a series based on the popular books. Women have been waiting for 20 years to see this book brought to life.
Sam Heughan has been tweeting certain lines from the book causing women all over the world to swoon.
Hey! If Michael Keaton can do it, why not?
Nah, but he’d be better cast as The Riddler…
I don’t understand it, but I also don’t care much. Batman’s been done to death. How about giving Wonder Woman a chance?
As long as they let her wear some clothing.
Couldn’t care less. I won’t see the movie anyway.
BEN AFFLECK AS BATMAN IS WORSE THAN OBAMA WHO IS WORSE THAN HITLER DESSED UP IN AN OBAMA COSTUME!!!!1!!
Upset?
Just disappointed.
I had hopes for this movie..
Now, it will simply suck from the getgo
That a solid, work-a-day director has to debase himself by appearing in this dreck. My guess is he realized he’d be increasingly self-financing productions and grabbed the WB cash.
Who?
I am not that sort of person. In fact, I don’t give a flying fig.