Ben Affleck: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

5 Performances That Sucked

5. Bruce Wayne - Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice

I couldn't honestly put Batfleck on the Awesome list without a massive "but", and this is it. Once the initial casting backlash died down everyone kinda assumed he'd be brilliant and, like Johnny Depp's "comeback" with Black Mass, some people have actually taken the pre-release hype as post-viewing analysis, even though that's not quite right. You see, while Affleck's Batman is solid, his Bruce Wayne is a little odd, little more than the Dark Knight sans mask with a very thin facade that struggles to be taken seriously in social interactions. There is no line between Bruce Wayne in the Bat-cave and Bruce Wayne the socialite (as there most certainly was with Keaton and Bale); he is simply a grumpy old man who only changes when he puts on a costume. Maybe Affleck's played it this way, but as there's little point of reference to ground it it never feels like a proper character; there's really only one short scene where he embraces the role, and that is quickly turned back onto the plot without giving a sense of his underlying character. Now maybe later movies will prove this wrong - much of the problem here comes from the direction as much as the performance - but for now I'm not sold on Affleck as Bruce Wayne.