This week: Bruce Wayne finds himself in an extended universe.
Last time:Chaos agents and face tubes.
The world ends and Batman is still Batman.
Ben Affleck in ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’.Warner Bros. Pictures
He emerges from the bunker in full costume plus apocalyptic flair.
Capeless, but trenchcoated.
The effect is not graceful.
Ben Affleck in ‘Justice League’.Warner Bros. Pictures
He looks like a brick wearing a podium.
DirectorZack Snyderdeemed this dark future an Imax-worthy showcase scene.
It’s a dream or a prophecy, so nothing matters on a plot level.
Ben Affleck in ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’.Everett Collection
We see a couple dozen other people on screen, never identified, personality-free.
They exist so the superhero can pummel them.
It’s Batman Xtreme, Maximum Pwnage, only missing anArkham Citycombo counter.
Ben Affleck in ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’.Warner Bros. Pictures
The goggles do nothing.
Quoth the Batman: “NOOOOOOOO!!!”
In a film I can’t stand, this is one of my favorite Batman moments ever.
It was supposed to be cool, but it’s mainly hilarious.
and then tosses him aside.
Kal-El has a swoony romantic moment, and flies away to resurrected glory.
CUT TO: The goddamn Batman, moaning on the grass.
“Yeah,” he mutters, “something is definitely bleeding.”
This is the critical scene ofJustice League, and it is crap in any cut.
We know these battling good guys will become teammates, so nothing matters on a plot level.
The greenscreen is embarrassingly present: bland gray Metropolis wallpaper in the background, smoke that never hazes right.
WhenJoss Whedon took over the reshoots, he controversially chose to recognize the existence of non-gray colors.
Visual clarity destroys this Batsuit.
Extra light brings out the pockmarks; Affleck seems to be wearing a 6-foot-4 jogging toe sock.
The actor has admitted that his life during production was a personal and professional shambles.
He must have spent hours in costume that day to act like a wounded idiot.
His groaning contains no epic grandeur, but it’s not zesty farce either.
He just sounds exhausted.
In a film I can’t stand, this is one of my favorite Batman moments ever.
It was supposed be funny, but it’s astoundingly sad.
These two sequences are the ecstasy and the agony of Batfleck.
Swaggering pomposity becomes embarrassed self-deprecation.
Monstrous assurance shades into bruised nonchalance.
Production onBatman v Supermanstarted in 2013, whileJustice League’s theatrical reshoots took place in summer 2017.
Between these two scenes, the world imploded.
Best-laid plans for the mega-franchise went out the window.
And Affleck’s life changed, dramatically.
you might sense it in his performance.
His Batman is a strange kind of heroic failure.
He is bigger (literally) but also smaller, with no solo film to call his own.
An air of ruined swagger hangs over his performances first accidental, then palpable.
In a strange way, Affleck feels more linked to Batman than any actor since Adam West.
His centrality may not last past this weekend and whateverThe Batmanis.
Never count Affleck out.
You get good at comebacks when you have to get good at comebacks.
“I’m happy to be Sad Batman,” the actor recently told Jimmy Kimmel.
But like, really though.
Has any Batmaneverbeen sadder?
WhenThe Flashhits theaters,Affleck will becomethe actor who has played Bruce Wayne in the most movies.
But the numbers lie in both directions.
In some ways, Affleck has played Batman less than any Batman.
In three movies (including two Ultimate Whatever cuts), Bruce has never had a proper love interest.
But has he ever even had a proper villain?
The billionaires only talk a couple times, though.
In another future dream, Batman teeth-grits through a chat with the very worst Joker (Jared Leto).
The two actors were, apparently, never even in the same room.
(What’s worse: Jared Leto overacting at you, orpretendingJared Leto is overacting at you?)
He lives in an expensive no-place with glass walls and spends way too much time on his computer.
He slays various henchmen, and grunts in various cockpits.
Characters express concern over his ultraviolence.
But Snyder clearly thinks the Bat-missile-launcher rocks, and clearly wants Batman to kill fools stupendously.
Batman spends two-thrids of a movie trying to murder Superman, and then realizes Superman is his pal.
Aggressive pointlessness has been the primary mood of the DC Extended Universe.
But today I don’t care about the universe.
I care about Batman.
Then he became Batman.
Was that his Icarus moment?
When did the spiral begin?
That’s a busy 2016.
Snyder departedJustice Leaguefollowing a family tragedy.
Whedon came on board, leading to a chain of events that will remain disputed for the next millennium.
When Afflecktalks aboutJustice Leaguenow, it sounds like rock bottom.
A sense of dwindling permeates his character’s journey.
He wanted to makehis own solo Bat-film the first Batman to direct himself!
but now his most famous turn as the character is afour-hour content lumpreleased by the streaming serviceChristopher Nolan hates.
that this attractive, successful man has not yet gotten the respect he deserves.
MaybeThe Flashwill reckon with all these complexities, or send him off into the multiverse for a decades-long furlough.
Snyder is a body guy, to put it mildly, whereas Whedon is all dialogue.
The shift in characterization is extreme: from Conan the Barbarian to Conan O’Brien.
We see this guy’s bruises and understand just how little this human belongs at the looming godfight.
“Alfred, I need the big gun!”
he pleas, right before Superman aggressively pulls him into the air.
Don’t underestimate the surprising frailty that slips into the margins.
Whedon’s merciless camera goes up into Affleck’s bug-out eyeballs.
Batman has never been so pitiful, never look so scared.
Is that a roundabout way of saying he’s never looked more human?
