It was predictable in a lot of ways, but the level of outrage is so high that there's apparently a mass suicide event scheduled for July 2014 on Facebook (hopefully as a joke). That, plus the angry tweets, comments, facebook posts, and blog entries (I guess myself included), not to mention petitions, including one that petitions the White House to have Ben Affleck removed from the film (not kidding), and maybe it's enough to start asking ourselves...might we be overreacting just a bit?
Believe me, I understand the gut reaction (see my previous post on the topic), and there's nothing more annoying to me than reading the oft-repeated claim that "the same complaints were made about Heath Ledger and Michael Keaton" back in the day, but this kind of outcry seems to be approaching nothing less than mass hysteria. I'll admit, it's kind of funny to watch, although I guess I feel a teeny bit sorry for Ben Affleck at this point (I mean, really, how humiliating), but all this attention on him is sure to take the focus off the Superman character (who happens to be my favorite superhero), to the point where he may as well not even be in the film! Henry Cavill's the one getting the shaft here, as WB clearly has no real interest in making any more solo Superman movies. So much for that franchise.
But come on folks...mass suicide? Let's lighten up and look at it another way. If this movie turns out to be this generation's Batman & Robin, at least that's one of the most hilariously awful movies ever made- and that in itself possesses a certain kind of entertainment value like nothing else. I didn't really like anything about Man of Steel, but the idea of watching Ben Affleck prancing around in the Batsuit is almost too funny to resist. I think if anything this puts me on board with the casting of Matt Damon as Robin- just go all out with it!
