Ben as Bats?

For those of you who don't know, Ben Affleck has been cast to play Batman in Zack Snyder's next Superman film, which will apparently pit DC's most iconic heroes against one another.  This is drawing a lot of fire from the internet crowd, though some are backing the decision.  My initial reaction was to groan, but that's largely due to the fact that the move brought back memories of Daredevil, a film I'm still struggling to forget.

Having said that, many of the problems I have with Daredevil weren't Ben's fault, and even at that point he probably would have been a better choice for Bats than Marvel's horned hero.  I think it's fair to say that he has evolved, and currently, he probably has just the look WB was looking for.  They've been saying they want an older, wiser Batman, and Affleck is at a stage in his career where I think he fits that bill.

The notion of Batman and Superman throwing down in a major motion picture is pretty epic, though I do worry that this project is being rushed.  As long as they have a quality script, I think this movie might just deliver the goods.  Daredevil suffered from a lousy script and terrible direction, as well as a pair of awful revisionist takes on Bullseye and the Kingpin.  The fight scenes were terrible and there just wasn't a lot to like about the picture aside from a gripping opening and David Keith as Daredevil's pop.  I don't think the upcoming Batman vs. Superman throwdown will have those problems; Snyder is a visionary directory who always scores big when it comes to action scenes.

At first, I wasn't sure about Ben as Bats, but as long as there's a good script in the mix, I think this could wind up surprising a lot of people.

Note: The Town is one of the best thrillers to come down the pipe in the last several years, and the more I thought about this, the more Affleck's role in that feature shaped my opinion.  I was a big fan of Good Will Hunting once upon a when, and everything Affleck did for Kevin Smith was golden, but it's really The Town that has me thinking he could excel in this part.