Movie Actors

I was talking with a friend on AIM and we got to talking about the Justice League movie. My friend expressed the idea that it was a bad idea to have Superman and Batman in the movie played by new actors as opposed to Christian Bale and Brandon Routh.

I've seen that opinion expressed before, a lot of places, and honestly, I think it's a bit silly.

Well, okay, I get on one hand. Christian Bale plays a really good Batman and Brandon Routh practically embodied Christopher Reeve. So in that, I understand the complaint.

But I don't really understand the notion that the audience will somehow be confused by the whole deal.

I think the movie going public will be able to look at the bat ears and the "S" cape and realize who these guys are supposed to be.

I dunno, it just seems silly. At some point or another, we've had JLU, Teen Titans, some version of the Batman cartoon, and Smallville all running on television at the same time. If you count reruns of Lois and Clark or Adam West's Batman, we get even more. Or network showings of Michael Keaton/Val Kilmer/George Clooney as Batman, or Christopher Reeve as Superman...

I honestly don't think that it's going to be that big of a deal to see another fellow in the iconic tights. I don't even think the fact that it's NOT Routh or Bale would be THAT much of a discouragement for people to see the movie.

It's like Sherlock Holmes, I think. Sure, Holmsian fans probably have their favorite version of the great detective, be he Brett or Rathbone or someone else entirely, but that usually won't stop them from enjoying any of the other versions. It's the nature of the character.

Honestly, I figure it's better this way. I suspect Justice League (I refuse to call it "Justice League: Mortal" because I have taste) is going to be a fairly light action-y romp. There'll probably be some seriousness, but no one's going to watch this thing for epic herodom or dark grittiness. It's going to be a completely different tone from Superman or Batman, and while I don't doubt that Bale or Routh could do it, this saves some cognitive dissonance. We don't have to wonder then why Batman is so gloomy or solitary in his own movie, or why he doesn't call Superman for help. It's an AU, or something like that, and having a different face behind the mask will help with that notion.

I'm not saying I think the Justice League movie will be good. It might. It might also be delightfully awful. But I think it might not be a bad thing to have all mostly-unknown actors in this sort of thing.

If nothing else, if it sucks absolutely, we can completely forget it exists without tainting the good actors' resumes. heh.