Ben Affleck Hating Justice League Just Confirms He’s the Perfect Batman

Batman knows that criminals are a suspicious, cowardly lot. Movie fans know that Ben Affleck is a sad, tired man. Put the two together and movie magic should happen. Yet, for some reason none of Affleck’s four outings as Bruce Wayne have really stuck with anyone other than the dwindling group of Zack Snyder fans, still yelling on the internet about something. Yet, whatever the many (many, many) problems with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Justice League, Zack Snyder’s Justice League, and The Flash, there’s no question that Affleck puts in good work as a beleaguered Bruce Wayne and an even more frustrated Batman.

Turns out, the performance stemmed from a sort of unintentional method acting. On the Happy Sad Confused podcast (via The Hollywood Reporter), Affleck explained, “The experience of Justice League for me was so, so negative for lots of different reasons.” Although some of those reasons were personal, others had to do with the making of the movie itself. “I really saw how not to make a movie like that when the studio is at odds with the filmmaker,” he said. “You’re really making a mistake. That was what really doomed that.”

Doom and gloom is rarely what any studio wants to hear from a lead actor. But in this case, it’s perfect.

As seen in Batman v Superman, Affleck was cast to play an older, more cynical Batman, a man who had spent his younger years fighting the good fight, and now wants to give up. Moreover, the 9/11-esque destruction that opens the movie only disheartens him more, as he now realizes that there’s a god-like being on Earth. That movie ends with Batman and Superman (and Wonder Woman) teaming together to fight Lex Luthor’s monstrosity Doomsday, but Superman dies in the process.

In both versions of the follow-up, Justice League (initially directed by Snyder, but then reshot and re-assembled by Joss Whedon) and Zack Snyder’s Justice League, Batman has seen the error of his ways and wants to embrace superheroes. He even goes so far to gather the heroes into a team. But here, he’s upset about the way his actions led to Superman’s death. And he’s upset that Superman first returns as an unemotional super-being.

In other words, Ben Affleck plays a sad-sack Batman. And that’s great, because Affleck excels at playing sad. He may be a tall, charming movie star. But Affleck is best when he’s beaten-down and sad. Take one of his best recent performances, in the basketball drama The Way Back. His character is a former athlete and someone able to command the attention of young men. But he’s a broken alcoholic, someone barely able to make it through the day. Affleck manages to combine both his good looks and his deep melancholy to play someone so unbearably sad that we can’t help but watch them.

He brought the same energy to his Batman movies. Affleck’s Batman isn’t the team player we usually see, a guy who hangs out with Robin or the JLA. Nor is he the troubled, but eventually okay Bruce Wayne that Christian Bale portrayed in the Christopher Nolan movies. This is a guy who hates being Batman, hates getting called back into action, hates dealing with Superman and Lex Luthor, and hates teaming up with the Justice League. He even hates talking to annoying Barry Allen in The Flash.

And we can tell he hates it, which makes his performance believable. Is that enough to make those movies good? Absolutely not. But it is enough to remind us that we could have had some really great movies with Affleck as Batman.

But if the movies are good, would Affleck have been as sad? And if he wasn’t sad, would his performance be good? Those are questions not even the World’s Greatest Detective can answer.