When Ben Affleck was announced as the new live action Batman back in August of 2013, to say that there was a fan backlash would be a huge understatement. There was absolute uproar, as fans vented their “nerd rage” on social media and in blogs all over the internet and a petition was created to oust him from the role which smashed its 75,000 signatures target.
Reasons given for fan discontent at the casting have included things like Affleck’s age and his previous performance as Marvel superhero Daredevil back in 2003.
That being said, since the Argo actor has been seen and heard performing his role (in trailers, on posters, in set photos etc), fears have somewhat waned. He looks great in the costume and sounds suitably sinister to play the intimidating vigilante. In all fairness, that shouldn’t have come as a surprise – Affleck has come a long, long way since his Daredevil days and established himself as one of Hollywood’s finest stars.
This Batman will be very different to any we’ve seen on film before, however. The likes of Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney and Christian Bale all put their own stamp on the character by virtue of their own personalities and the material given to them and Affleck’s DC Cinematic Universe version will be a very unique entity as well. Here are five reasons why.
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The gadgets and technology utilised by Batman in all forms of media has always been extremely impressive, but the movies have been comparatively underwhelming in that regard.
That’s not to say movie versions of the Dark Knight have had poor gadgets – just that, in comparison to what he has used in the comic books, they’ve never been quite as good (of course, to be fair, he’s never faced a truly powerful foe in the movies and has never really needed to bust out his gadgetry big guns).
That is set to change, as he is going to don a suit of powered armour that will enable him to go toe-to-toe with Superman himself in physical combat.
The Batmobile and the usual gadgets will also appear, of course, but technology that enables Batman to rival the Man of Steel is several grades above anything ever seen in live action. With that in mind, it’s exciting to imagine what else from his arsenal of gadgets Batman might show off in the DC Cinematic Universe.
