All 13 Batman actors ranked from worst to best

8. Ben Affleck

Appeared in: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad, Justice League, Zack Snyder’s Justice League, The Flash

Here’s the thing with Ben Affleck, he had the potential to be an amazing Batman – some still say he was and, if you really think about it, that’s quite understandable. But did any of the films he appeared in ever really highlight that? No.

Of the two that he was a part of, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League, it was the former that gave him more to work with. That, however, was problematic at best because the film portrayed Batman as a vengeful, bloodthirsty vigilante that wasn’t afraid to break his sacred no-killing rule without ever delving deeply enough into why that was. That being said, the veteran actor did a great job bringing this to life and, whether he was wearing the actual Batsuit or the armored one, he looked like he had just stepped right out of the pages of Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns.

Unfortunately, his more light-hearted performance in Justice League contrasted with everything we knew about this version of the character and, with each joke, it just felt less like we were watching Batman and more like he was watching an actor playing Batman. Throw in the fact that the film’s altered Bat-suit made him look incredibly chunky and it just seems like the entire process was destined to work against him.

While a large part of Affleck’s underperformance was down to the problematic scripts, it’s hard to overlook how everything turned out. There were flashes of perfection that were unfortunately weighed down by mediocrity (through no fault of his own). He did what he could with the role, but this self-indulgently grim iteration of Batman shifted between darkness and light far too often to ever take him seriously.

If you want to see Ben Affleck play the perfect Batman, then check out his cameo in Suicide Squad because everything about that was perfect. Unfortunately, none of his headlining performances ever nailed the character quite like that one.

A stronger film really could have served him well…