Mexican director Alejandro Inarritu is nothing if not a respectable man. For those unfamiliar with his name, he won Best Director this year for his work on The Revenant. This was his fourth Academy Award, having taken home three Oscars just last year for his work on Birdman. In short, he knows a thing or two about filmmaking. Ben Affleck certainly values his opinion, but there is one subject on which the two differ: the cultural impact of superhero movies.
Inarritu has previously stated that he does like to take in the occasional superhero flick. But overall, his opinion on the genre is far from positive.
“They have been poison, this cultural genocide.”
This is the remark to which Ben Affleck felt a need to respond. And while he has a tendency to disagree, he doesn’t think that Inarritu’s comment is entirely without merit.
“I know Alejandro and he’s a great guy and a brilliant filmmaker and I admire him enormously. And [Emmanuel Lubezki, The Revenant’s cinematographer] is a friend of mine. Alejandro is also given to over-statement. I wouldn’t call it cultural genocide, but he’s brilliant and his point is taken that you can’t just swallow up cinema with any kind of movie.”
Ben Affleck made the aforementioned comment at a conference in Mexico City, during which he was joined by Batman v Superman co-stars Henry Cavill and Gal Gadot, in addition to director Zack Snyder. Cavill, who himself did not grow up reading comic books, had a somewhat interesting take on the genre.
“I read Greek mythology as a boy and I loved it. These guys who we are playing are just modern mythological heroes in today’s pop culture.”
While likely unintentional, Cavill’s comments stand opposed to yet another one of Inarritu’s superhero criticisms:
“The problem is that sometimes they purport to be profound, based on some Greek mythological thing. And they are honestly very right wing. I always see them as killing people because they do not believe in what you believe, or they are not who you want them to be. I hate that, and don’t respond to those characters.”
By the way, those unfamiliar with Greek mythology should know that the gods actually did kill people over differences of opinion on multiple occasions. The fact that we’re seeing references to ancient myth so close to the release of Batman v Superman is almost astonishingly apropos.
Turning away from Inarritu, Ben Affleck had another somewhat troubling issue that he felt the need to address. At the conference, Affleck was asked about recent rumors that he was involved in the script for Batman v Superman. For those not in the loop, this specific rumor claims that Ben Affleck was sitting around in his Batman costume and doing rewrites while production was already underway. Affleck’s response was straight to the point:
“That is the dumbest rumor. I just like how if I was gonna go write, I would put on this bat suit first because it’s so comfortable to write in. I didn’t rewrite anything in any outfit, my underwear or otherwise.”
That pretty much covers all the bases for potential writing attire. It’s safe to say that Affleck’s lack of a writing credit is legitimate.
To see Affleck and Cavill duke it out on the silver screen, don’t miss Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice when it releases this Friday, March 25.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
