So it seems that its now official - Ben Affleck is done as Batman. A little less than five years after he was first announced as the Caped Crusader, and just two movies later (three, if you count cameo appearances), Batfleck is no more.
And as much as I am looking forward to Matt Reeves' new take on the character, with whoever the next actor will be, I can't help but feel a little saddened by the fact that Affleck's Batman is over and done with. Particularly because we barely got to know him, and he was barely given a chance to live up to his potential.
Affleck's Batman was an interesting take on the character, to say the least. Pretty much NO ONE wanted a retread of the origin story, so jumping to the other end of the chronological spectrum and giving us an older burnt-out Batman past his prime was a great move. Making him a lot more bitter, violent and morally unmoored than we're used to seeing him was a bold move - one that admittedly not everyone appreciated. And then of course, there was the look - right out of the pages of Frank Miller's DKR. Finally, a comic-book accurate Batman look after decades of black armor!
Psychologically, this Batman was pretty intriguing. When I watched BvS, I remember being very impressed by the metaphor of the opening scene. The bats led me into the light...a beautiful lie, Bruce recalls, reflecting upon how becoming the Batman, being this violent, brutal agent of justice deluded him into believeing that he was helping make the world a better place. There was also the unspoken fact that decades of defending Gotham from the likes of madmen like the Joker, and losing his partner to a tragic death, caused him to lose his own moral compass and become even more vengeful and cruel.
The notion that a paranoid and brooding Batman would be vary of the awesome, unchecked power of Superman, and other superheroes, is one that's been around in the comics for a good thirty years now. But Affleck and Zack Snyder really drove home the psychology behind that impulse better than most comic-book writers have. And of course, that led us to the turning point in this Batman's story - how Superman's sacrifice and innate humanity reminds Bruce that his own mission is to bring people hope and make the world a better place, and how he needs to better live upto that.
Yes, Affleck's Batman was great. But perhaps he wasn't the right Batman for the DCEU.
For starters, this was a 'young' DC Universe, where superheroes were just starting to emerge. Now personally, I like the idea of Batman being around before Superman and the other Justice League members because I feel that Bruce Wayne putting on that cape and cowl for the first time and scaring the sh#t out of criminals works best in a context where flying men and Amazon warriors aren't common knowledge. But there's a world of difference between a Batman who's been around for a few years helping found the Justice League and a burnt-out ageing Batman who's been around for twenty years doing it. It makes Batman less of a peer to the other heroes, and more of a Nick Fury-like mentor figure/general. Which I suppose was the direction they were going for, but, like a lot of things with Justice League, didn't turn out so well.
More fundamentally though, perhaps Affleck's Batman simply wasn't one designed for a shared universe. His Batman was a psychologically rich character and a great director and screenwriter could have done wonders with him in a solo film. But foregoing the solo film and instead sticking him in a film with the likes of Aquaman, Flash, Wonder Woman and Cyborg was far from the soundest plan. This was probably a flaw with Snyder's original plan to begin with, but once you throw Joss Whedon's messy Avengers-lite take on the JL movie into the mix, it becomes a disaster. As it is, Affleck's Batman sorta worked in BvS simply because we got to spent a fair bit of time with him - which actually proved detrimental to Superman. And even so, a lot of people simply didn't get the time and space to appreciate Affleck's Batman when his debut involved sharing the screen with the other big-name DC hero.
The sad part is that had we gotten to see Snyder's DCEU arc play out on-screen, we might have emerged with a deeper appreciation of this version of the Dark Knight. And the solo film written and directed by Affleck would have given us a chance to get to know Batfleck on-screen even better, without all the other capes. As it stands, every avenue to let us get to know this Batman better and to let him live up to his potential was closed off. So really, Affleck leaving the role officially at this point is pretty much a mercy kill to Batfleck.