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Ben Affleck Responds To ‘Batman V Superman’ Criticism

By Gregory Wakeman
Published on: 09:06 PST, Oct 9, 2016

Shortly after Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice was released, and received a critical shellacking from critics, a video went viral of a depressed-looking Ben Affleck hearing for the first time that the blockbuster had been deemed a disappointment.

Now, several months after the release of Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice, and with the dust having settled on the poor reviews and its $873.3 million box office haul, Ben Affleck has had time to reflect on his own thoughts on the hugely divisive film.

While out promoting The Accountant, Ben Affleck spoke to FOX DC about the reaction to Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice, and clearly he’s quite torn. Because while he admitted that people seemed to want a lighter tone, he also revealed that plenty of people had come up to him with only positive things to say about the film. Plus, thanks to its huge box office intake, Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice is by far the biggest success of his career, with Armageddon’s gross of $553.7 million its closest competitor.

When probed about the response to Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice, Affleck responded, “It’s interesting. It was a movie that a huge, hit movie that — more people went to see that than any movie I’ve ever made in my career. So that’s the biggest hit of my career, and it had a lot of editorial negativity.”

Its Rotten Tomatoes score of just 27% underlines how negative the response to Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice was, with the website providing the critical consensus of, “Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice smothers a potentially powerful story — and some of America’s most iconic superheroes — in a grim whirlwind of effects driven action.” Ouch. However the audience score for Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice wasn’t quite as harsh, as it came in at 64%.

This was something that Ben Affleck himself had spotted, as he continued his critique by remarking:

“Although I think the reviews… fans went, and it got a lot of positive responses. It was interesting, that movie, because it was judged, not necessarily on execution so much as on, like, its tone. People seem to want a lighter tone to the movie, and I thought that was interesting because it’s a subjective… tone isn’t a qualitative thing. It’s subjective, right? Some tones might resonate with me, and they might not with you.”

But while various moviegoers were far from pleased with just how dark Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice was, Ben Affleck insisted that it was exactly the tone that he had discussed with director Zack Snyder ahead of production as it was in sync with the one that Frank Miller had used in The Dark Knight Returns.

“And the tone of the film was really paralleled with the Frank Miller book, which I liked, and thought was great,” Affleck continued. “So I’m glad that so many people went, and so many people liked the movie, and that it worked out.”

Because of the critical reaction to Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice, it’s still a bit of a stretch to insist that it was an all-out success, while the equally tepid reaction to Suicide Squad, which was released in August and also featured Ben Affleck’s Batman in a cameo role, means that there is still some way to go before critics and moviegoers are won over by the DC Extended Universe.

Ben Affleck himself will have a big hand in trying to get the DC Extended Universe back on track, as he is writing, directing, and starring the new solo Batman film. It’s been speculated that Affleck’s Batman film will be released in 2018. But during a recent discussion with E! News on Facebook Affleck insisted “there is no Batman movie happening, yet, we’re still trying to figure it out, you know, get the script and budget and all that stuff.”

[Image via Warner Bros]

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