It’s hard to believe it’s been almost a decade since the release of Justice League, the film that marked the beginning of the end for the DCEU. The film’s post-production woes are well known. After a family tragedy, Zack Snyder stepped away from Justice League, and Joss Whedon was brought in to handle two months’ worth of reshoots, which Ben Affleck has described as the “low point of my career.“
Ben Affleck on Justice League Reshoots
“The experience of ‘Justice League’ was so negative for lots of different reasons, some of which have to do with where I was at personally and some of which had to do with the tragedy that happened at that time,” Affleck said on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. “I saw how not to make a movie like that, which is where the studio is at odds with the filmmaker. You are really making a mistake.”
Affleck added that he was “really glad and gratified” that Zack Snyder got to release his version of the film several years later, but he found the whole experience of reshooting the movie awful. “That was f***ing great. I was really happy for him,” he said. “That was shitty, him being taken off that movie and the reshoots that we did. If you want the low point of my career, it was that.“
He also said the use of the death of Snyder’s daughter by suicide to justify removing him was gross. “Somebody’s death by suicide eclipses everything,” he said. “The way in which that was, I thought, used as an excuse [to replace Zack] was one of the shittiest things I’ve ever seen. It was so gross. The whole environment and vibe [on set during the reshoots], much of which I was not privy to but heard secondhand from the actors, it was just, ‘Wow, this is about as gross as it gets.’ And I was drinking too much… and I got divorced. It was a difficult time for me personally, but those thing, while painful, did not impact that movie.“
Justice League Bombed
Despite grossing over $661 million, Justice League was a box-office bomb thanks to its hefty $300 million budget, making it among some of the most expensive movies ever made. The disappointing box office, not to mention lacklustre reviews, were the first signs that the DCEU was in poor shape. Although the franchise had a major success the following year with Aquaman ($1.1 billion), it was nearly all downhill from there.
Animals
Affleck’s latest movie, which he directed, co-wrote, and produced, as well as stars in, recently debuted on Netflix. Unfortunately, reviews for Animals haven’t been kind. The film follows a mayoral candidate and his wife as they resort to extreme measures to pay their son’s ransom, revealing dark secrets they never intended to bring to light.
“Animals is surprisingly uninspired for a movie Affleck directed, as his directorial efforts are usually bangers,” wrote our own Chris Bumbray. “Gone Baby Gone, The Town, Argo, Air—even Live by Night—are all really solid movies. Animals feels like just another streaming movie, which is perhaps why Netflix is giving it a low-key release.” You can check out the rest of his review right here.
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