I didn't like Gone Baby Gone.

When Marvel started making their movies they didn't rely on star power. I know its hard to remember but before Iron Man Robert Downy Jr was doing supporting roles in movies like Charlie Bartlet and leading Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Did you remember that he was in Gothika? I didn't. But he was a known talent. And a perfect Tony Stark thanks to his own struggles with addiction. And we can see Marvel make the same choices over and over. Chris Evans, aside from being part of the utterly forgettable Fantastic Four movies had done charming work in a variety of movies that he wasn't the star of. Chris Hemsworth’s biggest role before Thor was playing Captain Kirk's dad in the Star Trek Reboot. The only time they deviated from finding a known actor who is about to break out was their casting of Edward Norton as the Hulk and he fits with their behind the camera approach: Get talented people and let them do their work. Make good movies. And of course when they recast The Hulk after finding Norton difficult to work with they went with excellent indy actor Mark Ruffalo, someone I’ve been waiting to start showing up in bigger movies ever since The Brothers Bloom.

Then there’s DC and Ben Affleck. And before I start in I want to say that I’ve got all the respect in the world for Ben Affleck the Director. He does damn good work. But that’s not who they hired. They hired Ben Affleck the Actor. An actor who’s overly goofy and was taken far, far too seriously a decade ago. An actor whose career tanked so hard that when The Town was released they advertised it as “From the Director of Gone Baby Gone” without ever using his name. And he’s built up a lot of good will since then. But I think that the main reason he was cast was because people know who he is. They think that name recognition will help drive this movie to be a success.

That's extremely flawed, and Marvel has shown us why. These movies aren't a success because of the big stars in them. THESE MOVIES MAKE THESE PEOPLE INTO STARS. If you cast a good actor as Batman, say Christian Bale right off of the moody action flick Equilibrium, and add a Director who fits the material, like say Christopher Nolan, who was just coming off of a mature but ultimately gimmicky Memento, you get a good movie that people will flock to. If you continue like Time Warner/DC is you’ll keep casting once hot lead Ryan Reynolds as Green Lantern. You’ll get a director known for his dark and gritty realism for your space opera. Or in the case of Man of Steel you’ll get a director who’s known for his highly stylized approach and lack of depth.

And in the end it's why the Batman/Superman movie is likely going to both be huge and fail. Time Warner/DC is trying to put in pieces without looking at the puzzle. An actor here, a director we know here, Batman and Superman. Fanboys will love it! And if they don’t fuck em. We’ll make enough in the first weekend to cover it.

But we know how that approach ends up. Ask Joel Schumacher about it.