After looking at this more, one thing that bothers me-- other than the suit sort of sucks and Affleck is on the same level as John Travolta and Nick Cage as an actor -- is that it seems they returned to t he Michael Keaton style Batmobile.
Ok, that's not the only thing that bothers me. I've been wrong before. I had no expectations for Marvel's Avengers because Iron Man 2 had slipped so far from the original and Cap'n America, Thor and Hulk were all a little meh. But I was wrong. In the right hands that became a marvelous movie.
Doesn't allay my fears here.
1) Batman is more than a jaw and a dour attitude. In the proper hands he doesn't have to be a morose jackass. He doesn't have to be near monosyllabic. Keaton -- even though the movie doesn't hold up in retrospect because Burton was the last human on earth who should have been handling that film -- did a good job of managing the Bruce Wayne persona. Better than Bale did. Affleck has nothing to recommend him for this role beyond a square face. He's not Leo DiCaprio (who would be magnificent in the Bruce Wayne role, but has the wrong face). He's not his buddy Matt who would be good here. Wahlberg -- minus the Boston twang -- would be better. There was a time Bruce Willis could have handled it. Affleck is just a poor actor. Good director, but tolerable only in peripheral bit parts, not as a lead of this magnitude.
2) According to most of the web nerds, the director is looking to Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns for inspiration. WRONG. I'd be excited about a Dark Knight Returns movie because for that one you COULD cast Bruce Willis. Dark Knight Returns is about a world after Batman hung it up for a long time and both he and Superman got old. The Bat comes back and is older, weaker and creaky. He struggles to just survive brawls he would have dominated in his prime. Superman is a wussy government stooge. Selina Kyle (Catwoman) is a hooker. How you can look to that for an origin story about the beginnings of the Batman/Superman dynamic (and the Justice League) is beyond me.
3) The director. Joss Whedon managed the multiple egos and competing characters of The Avengers masterfully. I have no such confidence in Zack Snyder. Look at his resume.
300 - Overwrought, stylized sword and sandal epic. Wasn't great.
Sucker Punch - I liked it, but it was quirky and gray and stylized and over the top. It wasn't great. Could have been in more capable hands.
Watchmen - Terrible. Very stylized, over the top, overwrought. Unwatchable.
Dawn of the Dead - Campy, choppy, failed to gain much traction in a world primed and hungry for good zombie stories (Walking Dead, World War Z)
Man of Steel - It was better than I expected, but still wasn't even in the same stratosphere as Iron Man or Avengers. It looked like Sucker Punch in the way it was shot (the hues even) and it boasted the same overdone and tedious brawling that deadened Sucker Punch, 300 and even Watchmen (what I could stand of it). Looking at his entire body of work, all those movies have a similar (not great) feel.
There's nothing in Snyder's history that hints at anything near the balance and symmetry Whedon brought to Avengers.
Batman is my favorite superhero. Grew up with him, loved the comics and chose him over any of the rest. Not Superman, Green anything, Iron Man (he's so much better on screen than in the comics), Spiderman or any of those. Batman. Well, I also liked the Kamandi comics, but that's a story for another day.
I've still got Batman underwear. Wearing it at the moment, in fact.
Put a woman in a Harley Quinn outfit or Batman style lingere? Or even a Batman T and panties? Trippy triggers.
I'm still waiting for the perfect movie treatment of the dude. Christian Bale's version was almost there, but his silly voice antics took away from it. His second film, with Heath Ledger as the Joker (another casting move I questioned) was about as good as there was. But Bale wasn't quite buff enough to carry off the Wayne persona and they crammed way too much in there. We didn't need the two-face story, didn't need the UGLIEST love interest for Batman ever envisioned in that hideous Gyllenhall horse, didn't need more Scarecrow. It was a touch too ponderous. It was way too long. And it didn't make any time for fun other than in the mayhem of the Joker. Bruce Wayne isn't a tight-lipped jackhole. Bale and Nolan never figured that out.
I don't have much hope this will be any better. In fact I anticipate it will be rant-inducing.
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