Oh, for God's sake

My inner mule balking at assumed wisdom, fannish consensus and my inner rooter for the fannish underdog kicked in with a vengeance yesterday. You know, I hadn't looked forward to the planned Superman & Batman film, since I had severe ideological and storytelling problems with Man of Steel, though I liked the cast, and basically thought The Dark Knight Rises was rubbish, except for Selina/Catwoman, who was fabulous. Since the production team behind both would also be responsible for the proposed Batman & Superman thing, I was (and still am) suspecting exactly the same problems that annoyed me in the former two films in the future effort. Also, hearing Frank Miller's name thrown about does not inspire confidence.

However. The near universal reaction to the casting of Ben Afflek made me decide at once that come what may, I will see this film in the cinema instead of waiting for an accidental tv viewing, as I was intending to. Because good lord, you'd think they'd cast Tony Blair. Or Mel Gibson. Personal feelings about Ben Afflek: never saw Daredevil or Gigi which I take it are the basis for Afflek loathing, however liked him as an actor in Shakespeare in Love (where he had a blast as Ned Alleyn) and more importantly in Hollywoodland where he played George Reeves. (I also very much like him as a director, but that's irrelevant as to the casting, I know.) Neither performance would put him on my "best current actors" list, but they were enough to give me positive feelings about his abilities. Now given the scripts for both Man of Steel and The Dark Knight Rises, I don't think the Batman/Bruce Wayne this particular production team writes will someone I can be fond of. But then again, he just might, because as I said: the more comments like "The thought of Ben Afflek as Batman makes me throw up a little in my mouth" I read, the more I'm starting to root for Afflek!Batman. Not just because of my inner mule but because I just don't see what Ben Afflek has done to deserve that kind of animosity. He was in a few turkeys a decade ago and also had the tabloids after him and his then girlfriend. This is true about how many actors? I mean, have you seen, say, Michael Caine's resumé? Sean Connery's? On the other hand, Afflek also acted in a couple of enjoyable films, produced some highly watchable, interesting films as a director, he can write scripts, his current marriage and family seems to leave the tabloids endlessly frustrated by being a non-scandal, and he never, whether he was popular or disliked, used his status du jour as an excuse to be an ass to people, let alone violent (which sadly still makes him an exception among celebreties). This makes me like him or at least his public persona, since I don't know the man, more than I liked most incarnations of Bruce Wayne/Batman in any medium, to tell you the truth.

Lastly: the award for best reaction to the Afflek casting goes to Kevin Smith, though. Who, if you recall, put Ben Afflek & Matt Damon in a couple of his films and upon hearing the news graced us with this quote: "Do you know what that means? I've seen Batman naked!"

Oh for... you know the rest

...and now I've had the chance to read yesterday's NY Times, what do I find? An op-ed by Anna Gunn re: Skyler White hate. Apparantly she made the mistake of reading the Breaking Bad message boards, where in addition to Skyler bashing there is also actress bashing, complete with death threats. I don't think it would be comforting for her to know this sort of stuff happens in other shows as well, because what the hell? (The quotes she gives from the message boards are seriously freaky. I can't imagine how I'd feel reading this about a) myself and b) a character I've played for years.)

On the other end of the scale, I'm also irritated by the articles who pull that all canard, "these female characters are so badly written, that's why one can't but resent and hate them, it's the writing we hate, yay progressive us, the writing is sexist, our hate is only one more proof of our good taste and socialy conscious attitude", of which I've read several in the past. There are now even German blogs which tell me that the only thing wrong about BB are the women who are just one dimensional caricatures and thus made to be hated. I guess the fact that I went from indifference to passionate love for both Marie and Skyler - who are very different from each other, and neither of whom is a Young Buttkicking Warrior Maiden - is just proof of my bad taste then.