Back when Ben Affleck was arrested for the crime of being cast as Batman, I was on this site, staying up late to try and somehow stabilize the announcement's comment section with positive feedback. I can still totally see it physically, simply by looking at Batman's Arkham model.
Ok, that's actually Hush, but he's "fixed" his face to be like Bruce Wayne. Check out that chin!
Now a lot of the editorials you will be seeing now and in the future are going to detail what everyone thinks about Jesse Eisenburg playing Lex Luthor. It is a strange casting, definitely. But it's not bad, is it? I'm a little bit on the indifferent side for the clear-cut reason being: I already knew the actor I wanted to play Lex most definitely wasn't going to be cast. We didn't get Vin Diesel, so yippee!
No, I'm going to turn this around and put Alfred under the microscope.
I think a lot of people are going to take this one for granted, and that's an awful thing. Alfred Pennyworth is Batman's father, and Bruce Wayne's surrogate father. Ever hear the expression "
it takes two to tango"? Of course you have. Here we have a supporting character who is going to be shooting cynical dialogue back and forth with Ben Affleck, to the point of it becoming a game.
Those who've kept up know that I don't hold the Nolan trilogy in the highest of regard. What I do admire, however, was the dynamic between actors Christian Bale and Sir Michael Caine, which was loveable from beginning to end. What most have agreed is the best Batman movie, I'll at least point out here, held my favorite Alfred moment.
"But I did bloody tell you."
He's knowledgeable, sagely, cynical but compassionate. He lends his advice, his experience as a veteran, and speaks up at any given time he feels that Bruce is going in the wrong direction.
Michael Gough was something of an old grandfather as Alfred. We loved him for his stern expressions even in the Schumacher movies, his delivery of off-the-wall comments and asides, his sarcasm, and then the tenderness he would offer those inside Bruce's personal life. Where Sir Michael Caine was the mentor, Michael Gough was the butler.
Jeremy Irons is a favorite of mine who just isn't in enough movies. He has a great voice, a great range of facial expressions, and is apt to be the villain - my favorite role in anything. He is going to play the man I just described from Michael Gough's point of view as tender to Sir Michael Caine's cynicism. Perhaps a balance of the two, maybe either one, maybe something else entirely. Is he up to the challenge?
Yes, it is a challenge. The two aforementioned actors were kept on for a combined total of seven movies. And Alfred is not an M, a Moneypenny, or a Q who makes an appearance once or twice in a film and then abandons ship. Alfred is Bruce's only legitimate friend who he can confide everything into, who he trusts unconditionally with closely kept secrets, intelligence, and his livelihood. Can Jeremy Irons have that kind of a bond with Ben Affleck?
Absolutely.
Are we concerned about Ben Affleck's Bruce Wayne coming across as overly-confident, not wanting or only pretending to listen to anything anyone has to say to him? If you are, I tell you now that you shouldn't be, because that is what we need here. An older Bruce, semi-retired or retired from Batman, who thinks he has all the answers.
And now we have Jeremy Irons to STAB through that rough exterior. It is a good day.