Ben Affleck Directing Batman

"Batman Begins" director/co-star Ben Affleck continues the trend of improving on his reputation, has begun a recent reprise of "Batman", and delivers another very good performance as The Man in the Iron Mask. To be honest, that performance speaks volumes, albeit seemingly to Affleck's disadvantage of having not thought this through from the very beginning of the film. This is a story of Robin, driven on by fear, passion, and ultimately, betrayal. This is a film of heroes and villains, of actions and intentions, of why or how Batman works the way he does, and of how it works best. Affleck may be the best of a bad lot but he doesn't have to deliver a one note performance. He can and should convey the emotions of the performances well.

The "Man in the Iron Mask" has been compared to "The Dark Knight", though Affleck has said that they both won't be just the same type of film (there will be a significant difference), though the comparison still comes by the way it is being made. Affleck has cited that when you've seen a film as well as his on screen, the director is responsible for how it will appear. There is a level of skillful direction in a director that he can walk on the part of the camera. I don't think we will hear any arguments here that Affleck was handed his script with no input from the filmmaker. This is just a reference to the difference between the two films, and the fact that, at least in his films, the writer can often bypass the direction of the director (indeed, there is a stage play of that in the original script, but it wasn't used because Affleck, and all his collaborators, suggested it).

A direct quote from Affleck's statement upon the release of the film comes from him.

"One of the things we talked about was putting Robin in the best possible environment. One of the things I found out was that director Steve Soderbergh (who directed "The Informers", "Vantage Point" and "Do the Right Thing") likes to shoot with a camera that looks at you as though you're in front of it. You see Robin with no expression on his face, like you're in a gun fight or in a fire fight.