Like it or not, Ben Affleck is going to be closely associated with The Batman for the better part of the next five years. So when he steps out to promote a non-DC movie, like The Accountant, he'll be forced to answer a handful of Batman-related questions, giving us more insight into what's going on over in DC land. During the recent Accountant press day, Affleck was asked what he thought about the negative critical reaction to Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice earlier this year, and the actor think he knows why critics didn't dig it. Affleck said:
It's interesting. It was a movie that was a huge, hit movie that -- more people went to see that then any movie I've ever made in my career. So that's the biggest hit of my career, and it had a lot of editorial negativity. Although I think the reviews... fans went, and it got a lot of positive response. It was interesting, that movie, because it was judged, not necessarily on execution so much as on, like, its tone. People seem to want a lighter tone to the movie, and I thought that was interesting because it's a subjective... tone isn't a qualitative thing. It's subjective, right? Some tones might resonate with me, and they might not with you. And the tone of the film was really paralleled with the Frank Miller book, which I liked, and thought was great. So I'm glad that so many people went, and so many people liked the movie, and that it worked out.
Tone. It's a word being thrown around by those in the know at DC and Warner Bros. They understand that the movies in the DC Extended Universe -- from Man of Steel to BvS and Suicide Squad -- were deemed "too serious," and Zack Snyder has been saying that next year's Justice League will work to correct that. While on set of JL earlier this year, I was told that the "assembling of the team" nature of the League movie will set it apart from Dawn of Justice, which was designed to drive DC heroes apart.
But Ben Affleck also plays a serious card in the Batman v Superman debate: Fans went, and it made money. The movie earned $872 million worldwide. No, it didn't cross $1 billion (like Marvel's movies tend to do), but as Affleck points out, it's the highest-grossing film of his career, blowing Armageddon and Pearl Harbor out of the water.
Hmmmmmmm. Two Michael Bay movies. What if Bay made a DC movie, with Affleck? A dream come true....
Anyway, here's Ben Affleck explaining his post-mortem opinion on Batman v Superman with Fox-DC entertainment reporter Kevin McCarthy:
We know for sure that Ben Affleck's Batman will appear in next year's Justice League. But rumors also have him making a cameo in Wonder Woman, which will be out earlier in the year. And then, he'll be building to his solo Batman movie, which will be in theaters in a few years. It's all Batman, all the time for Ben.
