Ben Affleck IS Batman?

OK, after mulling over it for a while, I have to say I am pleased with the casting of Ben Affleck as Batman. 

He should have no issue with playing Bruce Wayne, he has the chiseled look required for the role, and he can easily be the playboy.  As for Batman himself...I liked Daredevil Director's Cut.  It adds more to the movie.  Affleck was alright in it, working well with a script that was essentially not the great. 

Affleck has been great in some movies, Town, Argo, Chasing Amy, but he has been in some stinkers too.  I think he sometimes has a tendency to try too hard, like he feels the need to earn respect and overacts the roles.  If he can settle into the role, then I think he will do well.  He is also a good choice for moving forward with Batman movies, able to star, write and direct if he so chooses.

My biggest concern is still the writing by David S Goyer and the direction of Zak Snyder.  Man of Steel proved that neither of these guys get Superman, at all!  But Goyer has good Batman experience, working on the Dark Knight Trilogy with Christopher Nolan.  Hopefully Nolan can reign him in a bit, and we can get some balance between action and interaction.  Only time will tell.

What I thought of Pacific Rim.

I had no real expectations for Pacific Rim, so I think that may have helped it.  I had seen, but not read a couple of both good and poor reviews. 

Basic premise is simple, the world is being attacked by aliens from below the Pacific Ocean, and humans team up to build giant robots.  How could you go wrong with this you may say. Well Michael Bay managed to screw up giant robots fighting, so I guess anything is possible.

First of all, I thought the fight scenes were pretty well edited together. Lots of destruction, but you are made aware that protocols are in place to evacuate people and save lives. A lot of the time these could be scenes from a Godzilla movie.  Big action spots that only occasionally confuse the eye.  

The acting is mostly solid all the way through.  Edris Elba is on top form, as are the hero pilots of the robots.  However for me the movie has a Jar Jar, or rather a pair.  The two scientists, played by Charlie Day and Burn Gorman, are seemingly there for comedy entertainment as is the black marketeer played by Ron Perlman.  Their whole story is just stupid, and played for laughs.  My other issue is with the female lead, played by Rinko Kikuchi, has a major traumatic stress issue, and then suddenly it gets better.  This maybe due to the vote of confidence, or just written off as a "well sometimes the first time sucks" moment, but either way it is given short shrift.

My real issue with the film is, that it gets about halfway through and stops being a Japanese monster movie, and turns into Independence Day crossed with Armageddon. Complete with cheesy speech, and hero sacrifice, etc.

I enjoyed it, it was worth the money I paid, but it could have been better.  A bit more work on the second half would have improved it no end.  For me it gets 7/10