Ben Affleck sets the record straight on why fans love Zack Snyder’s Justice League. You’ll notice we’re referring to Zack Snyder’s Justice League, not the version of the Justice League that was released in theaters back in 2017. Zack Snyder’s Justice League was the infamous “Snyder Cut,” aka the version of the movie that director Zack Snyder always wanted to make, but couldn’t after he had to depart the film following his daughter’s suicide. The legion of Snyder Cut fans finally convinced Warner Bros. to let Snyder finish Justice League and then release it on the HBO Max streaming service.
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GQ asked Ben Affleck, who plays Bruce Wayne/Batman in Justice League and Zack Snyder’s Justice League, what makes the Snyder Cut so special. After commenting on how Zack Snyder’s Justice League was his highest-rated movie on IMDb, Affleck started to give his thoughts on what makes the movie so special to fans.
“The Snyder Cut, so to speak, is actually the movie that Zack wanted to make,” he says. “You have a director with a very clear idea of the kind of story they understand and want to tell and they know. And then you’ve got a commercial expectation, like a very valuable IP property. And sometimes they’ll hire this person for their distinctive take and view, and then want to impose on that something different. And the tension between those two things I think was very difficult and caused the first movie to feel very much like neither fish nor fowl. Which happens.”
Affleck added that he was glad that Snyder got to go back and make the movie that he wanted to make. “You know, a lot of long slow-motion sequences, stuff in black and white, very much R-rated,” Affleck said. “That movie is very much what Zack’s vision was. And it’s a rare thing that somebody gets the chance to go back and revisit and try to do what they wanted to do.”
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Keeping with the Justice League vibe, Affleck also discussed what he disliked about his Batman costumes when asked about his appearance in 2023’s The Flash. He noted that he had a great time making Batman v Superman, a movie that he found really compelling due to the idea of an aging Batman. Affleck noted that he enjoyed working with the team behind the movie, as well as filming in Detroit, but was disappointed that his son found his version of Batman to be a bit too scary. When speaking about his experience on The Flash, Ben Affleck noted that the Batsuit is the worst part of being Batman.
“I hated the Batsuits,” said Affleck. “The Batsuits are horrendous to wear, they’re incredibly hot, they don’t breathe, they’re made to look the way they want them to look. There’s no thought put into the human being [inside of it], so what happens is you just start sweating. I sweat, I get hot, in that thing, you just start pouring water because its got the cowl over it.
“It’s one thing to wear the suit, once you cover your head, I guess that’s where all your heat escapes and you feel it. Even the most highly trained, much more fit stunt guys, they could do that for about 45, 50 minutes, and then they’re going to get heat stroke. That was really the thing was that it made it difficult to make the movie because it was so hot. It also doesn’t make you feel very heroic, because you’re instantly exhausted and really sweaty and trying to hide the sweat pouring down your face. Maybe Christian [Bale] or [Robert Pattinson] were just better at dealing with it, but I found it to be the least fun part of it.”
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