Ever notice how fans go crazy, especially those with an affinity for mediums like movies, over any kind of announcement or even the slightest rumor? After gauging the reaction of fans as Ben Affleck was cast as Batman I imagined people flipping their desks layered in paperwork, running screaming through streets, throwing bricks through windows and rocking cars till they rolled over on their sides. Of course it’s never that serious, but the picture the Internet crowd paints might lead you to conceive even worse images than that.
We’ve had dozens of different situations come up this last year that have brought on this type of retort. Things like the rumored castings of the Human Torch, Andrew Garfield’s Mary Jane and even the voice of Rocket Raccoon have lit fires to some heated discussions and vicious opinions. But the most recent uproar over Warner Bros. and DC Comics latest decision to give Affleck a chance to dawn the cowl of one of the most popular characters ever forces me to scratch my head.
I can’t really see why people are so upset. Here we have an actor who reflects the appearance of Batman and has more than enough experience to take on the role of Gotham’s caped crusader but something’s wrong? He's an actor, he gets paid to do this. This is what he does for a living. But becoming Bruce Wayne is out of his range?
Honestly, I don’t think there are many choices that would have made people happy, actually probably none. Some wanted this actor, others wanted another, it would’ve been impossible to please everyone. I wanted an actor that didn’t have as big of a name. There were many different demands, but it seems like we all were answered with surprise. The ones who felt the biggest shock seemed to be fans of comics or more specifically, the Dark Knight, himself.
I will say that comic book movies are different than any others, though. Already, there’s a script written in the stories that have been around for decades. There’s an image of what everything’s suppose to look like. In some cases we’ve already seen what works and what doesn’t, much like the cases of Superman and Batman. Fans begin to fixate one what they think is good and what’s bad. And because of the vocal ability of the Internet the opinion of a few can lead to something like a White House petition to negate a casting choice for a fictional character. That lack of faith and pessimism is what ruins what could be great things.
Think about the minds behind this project. You think they like swimming against waves of uninformed opinions and criticisms on something like a Batman and Superman movie? This should be fun for everyone, we all should be excited we actually get to see something as awesome as this. Instead many choose to inject poison.
If anything is going to make this movie turn out to be a gigantic failure, its not Affleck, it’s the fans with their misguided passion. These self-fulfilling prophecies that manifest around any type of situation like this hurt the movie substantially before we’ve even seen a seconds worth of actual film. Guess what? If you think the movies going to be bad, it’s going to be bad. No matter what you say, people who’ve established this mentality have already judge laid down judgment. The movie will never be good enough for them.
There are tons of other things to worry about besides Affleck’s upcoming performance in a movie that we know absolutely nothing about aside from an alleged title and a couple of castings.
If you are this resistant to the choices made by the people who are dedicating their time and reputation to something they believe in, don’t see the movie. It will never get a chance to clench any kind of potential the people behind it are yearning for as long as you embrace that mentality.
Nowadays it seems like people are afraid to give anything the benefit of the doubt. We miss out on a lot because of that.
My advice to those who still feel sour, is to wait. Wait until you at least see a piece of this movie or the script, story or anything really. As I mentioned earlier, we barley have anything to go on. That goes for anything, whether it be movies, comics, video games or whatever. Just give it a chance.