Ben Affleck's Batman: What Went Wrong?

by James Hunt

1. A New Future For The DC Universe

Aquaman Billion
Warner Bros

After the release of Justice League, things weren't looking good for the DCEU. Zack Snyder's vision had fallen apart, and out of the movies released up to that point - Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, Suicide Squad, Wonder Woman, and Justice League - only one of them was a success in all senses of the word. There were big changes upstairs, lots of talk about what might happen, various plans thrown at the wall, without a whole lot of action.

Fast forward just over a year, though, and suddenly the future looks a hell of a lot brighter. Aquaman is now the highest-grossing DC film of all time, with James Wan crafting a take on the character that manages to be fun without ending up as a parody-worthy version mocked by things like Entourage. It was reasonably well-received by critics, and clearly cinemagoers were taken with it, which shows a new path forward for the DCEU, or at least DC movies in a broader sense.

Following on from Aquaman, there's Shazam!, which promises to take things even further with regards to tonal difference to what's coming before, leaning even harder into comedy territory. After that there's Joker, which looks like being a King of Comedy-esque black comedy; Birds of Prey, which is full of bright colours and a lighter approach; and Wonder Woman 1984, which should once again be full of the same optimism and inherent goodness as the first.

The newly-announced 2021 releases are in keeping with this too: Matt Reeves' The Batman won't exactly be light, but it will be a very different kind of story to what the DCEU's told so far; James Gunn's The Suicide Squad will hopefully be the movie promised by the original's first trailer. And DC's Super Pets just sounds like an utter joy.

The DCEU is now embracing weirder, lighter, and different kinds of stories and movies, which also means it's moving well beyond Ben Affleck's Batman.

How do you feel about Affleck's time as Batman? Are you said to see him go? Let us know down in the comments.

Advertisement

Watch Next


Contributor
Contributor

NCTJ-qualified journalist. Most definitely not a racing driver. Drink too much tea; eat too much peanut butter; watch too much TV. Sadly only the latter paying off so far. A mix of wise-old man in a young man's body with a child-like wonder about him and a great otherworldly sensibility.