Ben Affleck as Batman – channelling Bartleby a second time

When it was announced that Ben Affleck was going to be Batman/Bruce Wayne in the ‘Man of Steel’ sequel I did check that it wasn’t April Fool’s Day.

The ‘Batman vs. Superman’ film, or something to that effect, has been in the works seemingly forever with the basic premise featuring an older and embittered Batman, and Superman, plus some fighting.

Ben Affleck’s previous superhero film was ‘Daredevil’ – which is undeniably a rather cringe-inducing film, apart from Michael Clarke Duncan’s fab turn as the Kingpin/Wilson Fisk, so it isn’t a huge surprise that Ben Affleck’s involvement in another superhero film set off alarm bells.

The internet appeared to have hysterics over the casting, which were mostly expressed via amusingly-bitchy altered photos featuring Marvel and/or Christian Bale laughing uncontrollably and random petitions demanding a recast (not to be confused with the ’50 Shades of Grey’ recasting petition).

I will admit that my first reaction featured some fairly extreme reservations and a lot of laughing at the prospect of Matt Damon being cast at Catwoman.

(Photo from all over the internet)

However with some reflection and after rewatching ‘Dogma’ I think Ben Affleck will actually make a good Bruce Wayne. In ‘Dogma’ Affleck plays Bartleby, an angel who was banished from Heaven after encouraging a drunken Loki (Matt Damon) quit his job as the Angel of Death.

Just to make things worse they have been exiled to Wisconsin; however a Catholic Church desperate to increase attendance announces that they will offer plenary indulgence, so the masses (including Loki and Bartleby) can have the punishment of their sins removed by passing through the doors of that church, which means that upon death they can go to Heaven.

Unfortunately if this happened to Loki and Bartleby then this would overrule the word of God and destroy all existence.

It is a good film which is really made by both Angels being fantastic characters and they are very well-acted by Ben and Matt. Affleck channels Bartleby’s anger and raw emotion when talking about “being dumped” by God in a way that is both palpable and awesome in its intensity.

The role of Batman is to growl in the dark, even George Clooney almost pulled that one aspect off – although I try to pretend that I haven’t seen ‘Batman and Robin’ for a multitude of reasons.

It is the role of Bruce Wayne that requires acting ability, in particular if the film requires an older and betrayed Bruce who has been used and abused by the society and city that he sought to protect at huge personal expense. That Bruce would have a lot of anger and betrayal issues.

In that sort of plotline then Affleck’s bringing the same anger and intensity that he portrayed as Bartleby would ensure that he owned the role and will be unforgettable in it.

So now I am a little excited about an angry Bruce Wayne and I’ve still got a fair bit of ‘Dogma’ left to watch!

Copyright © WhereEvilThoughts 2013 – excluding pictures! Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to WhereEvilThoughts with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Curtsy of Internet Movie Database is one of my favourite quotes from Bartleby in ‘Dogma’:

“The humans have besmirched everything bestowed on them. They were given Paradise, they threw it away. They were given this planet, they destroyed it. They were favoured best among all His endeavours, and some of them don’t even believe He exists. And in spite of it all, He’s shown them infinite fucking patience at every turn. What about us? I asked you… once to lay down the sword because I felt sorry for them. What was the result? Our expulsion from Paradise. WHERE WAS HIS INFINITE FUCKING PATIENCE THEN? IT’S NOT RIGHT, IT’S NOT FAIR. We’ve paid our debt. Don’t you think it’s time? Don’t you think it’s time we went home? And to do that, I think we have to dispatch of our would-be dispatchers.”

Film: Dean Koontz’s Phantoms – a giant butterfly just ate your face

It is never a good sign when you are absolutely convinced that a film is far longer than it actually is; case in point being ‘Phantoms’ – based on the book by Dean Koontz (who also wrote the screenplay),it is 92 minutes long but feels like over 2 hours.

Koontz publically detested the film version of ‘Hideaway’ and reportedly kept the adaption of ‘Phantoms’ on a very short leash. Despite this ‘Hideaway’ made twice at much at the box office and both films had pretty similarly awful reviews.

For reasons that I can’t recall I have both films and ‘Phantoms’ is definitely the better of the two but that isn’t saying a great deal as I can’t remember that last time I actually got to the end of ‘Hideaway’. ‘Phantoms’ I have watched to the end at least a couple of times.

‘Phantoms’ starts with two sisters driving into a pretty town surrounded by snow and find that the town deserted – apart from a couple of dead bodies. The younger sister is played by Rose McGowan and the other one is played by an actress who later went on to be in ‘Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House.’ They then find Deputy Ben Affleck, an uber-creepy Liev Schreiber as his deputy and one other disposable policeman.

Together they find more dead bodies and call in the army – plus a Professor who happens to be an expert on “The Ancient Enemy” who is apparently responsible for mass disappearances of humanity (and the dinosaurs) all over history.

With a threat seemingly that big it sort of feels like Doctor Who should appear and save the day, but he doesn’t, instead there are creepy wanderings around in the dark… and after the below picture are SPOILERS!

(Photo from Evan Campbell – who sculpted for the movie!)

The Phantoms are the monster’s converted drones who wander around in the form of some of the people and animals that it has eaten. These Phantoms seem to pop up out of nowhere, as long as there is a drain – which isn’t as close to ‘IT’ as it sounds!

Liev’s character gets his face entirely chewed off by a giant butterfly that comes out of the dark – although that doesn’t stop him coming back as a Phantom and being creepy! The film doesn’t really explain the giant face-eating butterfly so I might need to track down a copy of the book. A cute dog in a church turns out to be a manifestation of the creature and kills a group of commandos, before stalking Ben Affleck.

The monster turns out to have a similar makeup to crude oil so gets eaten by bacteria designed to combat oil spills – which was handily on the army’s mobile lab.

(photo from Blastr)

The film has an entertaining and pretty creepy first half with a couple of very strong scenes (the oven one and the bit that starts with a noise like a steam train), but after the army arrives it starts to wanders along and not that much happens in the second half of the film which seems to drag on forever.

Like with most monster movies it is at it’s best when the protagonists don’t know what they are facing, after all it is pretty hard to be scared by an animated lake of petrol who thinks it is Satan.

Copyright © WhereEvilThoughts 2013 – excluding pictures! Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to WhereEvilThoughts with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.