Batfleck or Baleman?
The Dark Knight Trilogy. It is often regarded as one of, if not the, best superhero trilogies ever to grace the silver screen. Christopher Nolan’s dark, realistic, gritty take on Batman was a breath of fresh air from the atrocious catastrophe that was Batman and Robin. The casting was well done and the script was topical as well as engaging. Liam Neeson as Ra’s al Ghul was second to none, Cillian Murphy as the Scarecrow was everything the Scarecrow should be, Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent/Two-Face was one of the best character progressions I’ve seen in a film, Heath Ledger as, what many refer to as the definitive, Joker was frightening and the rest of the phenomenal cast. The rest, except for one: Christian Bale.
Now don’t get me wrong, I loved those movies, but Christian Bale was...disappointing. His fighting style was, well, lacking. There seemed to be very little actual style to it. His character portrayal was fine, far better than Clooney and Kilmer, but there was just something that was wrong about it. While promoting his new movie Knight of Cups, which released on March 4, 2016, Bale told Yahoo! Movies, “I didn’t quite manage what I hoped I would through the trilogy. Chris(topher Nolan) did, but my own sense of self is like, ‘I didn’t quite nail it.’”
Now let’s look at the upcoming Batman: Ben Affleck. When first cast as our new Caped Crusader, Affleck endured massive backlash from fans. They even went so far as to start a petition to have him removed from the film, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Obviously, this petition failed and the film is 16 days from release with Affleck as the Dark Knight. Several, maybe too many, trailers have been released online that depict the Bat doing various activities. The ones that I want to focus on are the ones that showcase Batman’s fighting.
For anyone who has ever played Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman: Arkham City, Batman: Arkham Origins, and/or Batman: Arkham Knight know what kind of fighting we want to see Batman practicing in the films. Sadly, we have yet to see that. Until now. Watching the trailers for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice one will see that Batfleck fights with skill and style, much like the Arkham games and comic books. Based on these clips, I can make the assumption that Ben Affleck’s Batman will be far closer to the comic material than any of our previous Batmen.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice releases on March 25, 2016.