space
head
head head head
Home Contact RSS Feed
COMICS   •   MOVIES   •   MUSIC   •   TELEVISION   •   GAMES   •   BOOKS
Patton Oswalt Defends Casting Ben Affleck As Batman
space
The Movie God   |  @   |  

Patton Oswalt Star Wars Filibuster

Sometimes Patton Oswalt is led to speak on certain things, and speak he does. And people listen. Because the man is incredibly thoughtful and intelligent, and he can oftentimes make sense of the senseless.

For many geeks out there, making sense of Warner Brothers’ decision to cast Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne/Batman in the Superman vs. Batman sequel to Man of Steel (and beyond) is impossible. Beyond comprehension. But still, Oswalt took to Facebook to argue why he thinks Affleck is a good choice for the role, and why everyone just needs to calm down.

You can read what he had to say below.

No matter how many times you post your stupid “Fire Ben Affleck from Playing Batman” petition, I’m going to delete it and block you. Take a deep breath, and think for a second:

Yeah, the dude’s made some bad films. Every actor has. Every actor does. Every actor will. It’s a huge, arcing career and NO ONE has control over where it goes. Movie to movie, year to year, you’re collaborating and trying and risking and, sometimes, yes — failing.

Plus, everyone seems to forget that he had the world dropped in his lap when he was YOUNG. And, judging by how other suddenly-famous youngsters do in the same situation, he fared pretty well. Even when it went wrong, he seemed to keep a self-deprecating, long-view philosophy about the burning freak carousel he’d found himself on.

And then what happened? I mean, he’d fallen from a HEIGHT. You know what happens to 95% of people who weather a descent that steep? They come apart, fray at all of their sanity nodes, and give up.

But then there’s the 5% who embrace crushing defeat and see it for the gift it is. And here’s the gift: when you fail, and fail UTTERLY, you wake up the next morning and see that the world didn’t end. And then the fear of failure is gone. And you’re free. You’re free to proceed on your own terms and pace — if you have the ego that permits you to.

Ben brushed himself off, realized he’d kept his eyes open on the movies he’d done, and started directing. And he’s become a damn good one.

A Batman portrayed by someone who’s tasted humiliation and a reversal of all personal valences — kind of like Grant Morrison’s “Zen warrior” version of Batman, post-ARKHAM ASYLUM, who was, in the words of Superman, “…the most dangerous man on the planet”? Think for a second and admit that Ben Affleck is closer to THAT top-shelf iteration of The Dark Knight than pretty much anyone in Hollywood right now.

I’d write more, but I have to go work on my post about how an overweight 44 year-old comedian with bad feet and insomnia would be a bold choice for The Joker.

So what do you think? Does Oswalt make good points, or are you still unconvinced that Affleck can pull this off?

[Source: Facebook]

6 Comments »

  1. He’ll be fine. Of course he can pull it off.

    Comment by Dwayne Takeda — August 28, 2013 @ 11:08 pm

  2. His personal character as a human being has nothing to do with how well he can portray a role. He will definitely have to prove himself in a big way, because right now I don’t see it.

    Comment by Steph — August 29, 2013 @ 12:49 am

  3. Patton Oswalt is going to delete my post and block me?

    Oh, shit!

    Comment by Synpax — August 29, 2013 @ 1:10 am

  4. I think Affleck will be fine. All the crybabies out there making such a stink haven’t been paying attention to the fact that Affleck has completely reinvented himself into a smarter and better actor and an oscar-winning filmmaker and director who has three very solid movies (as a director) under his belt. He’ll take this role seriously and I’m confident he’ll pull it off.

    Comment by Hugomarink — August 29, 2013 @ 11:31 am

  5. ?!

    Comment by Joeybombstyle — August 29, 2013 @ 3:16 pm

  6. Funny, because I do. He’s a good actor and can bring that “made a lot of mistakes in my youthful eagerness but I learned my lesson” to a slightly older Batman. If the part is written well he will be fine.

    Comment by Eric Fisher — September 1, 2013 @ 12:38 pm

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Leave a comment

space
space
Previous Article
space
Next Article
«
»
space
space
space
Amazon.com
space
You may have noticed that we're now AD FREE! Please support Geeks of Doom by using the Amazon Affiliate link above. All of our proceeds from the program go toward maintaining this site.
space
Geeks of Doom on Twitter Geeks of Doom on Facebook Geeks of Doom on Instagram Follow Geeks of Doom on Tumblr Geeks of Doom on YouTube Geeks of Doom Email Digest Geeks of Doom RSS Feed
space
space
space
space
The Drill Down Podcast TARDISblend Podcast Westworld Podcast
2023  ·   2022  ·   2021  ·   2020  ·   2019  ·   2018  ·   2017  ·   2016  ·   2015  ·   2014  ·  
2013  ·   2012  ·   2011  ·   2010  ·   2009  ·   2008  ·   2007  ·   2006  ·   2005
space
Geeks of Doom is proudly powered by WordPress.

Students of the Unusual™ comic cover used with permission of 3BoysProductions
The Mercuri Bros.™ comic cover used with permission of Prodigal Son Press

Geeks of Doom is designed and maintained by our geeky webmaster
All original content copyright ©2005-2023 Geeks of Doom
All external content copyright of its respective owner, except where noted
space
Creative Commons License
This website is licensed under
a Creative Commons License.
space
About | Privacy Policy | Contact
space