Trigger warning: Light comic nerdery ahead.
The major superheroes in DC Comics―concentrating on the men now―have basic but distinct personalities.
Superman is an alien god who's assumed the role of a good man.
Batman is a dour defender for a hostile world. Everyone, including himself, pays lip service to how he wouldn't have to exist in a better world, but no one wants that better world that he's not part of.
Hal Jordan, the Silver Age Green Lantern, has a warrior/diplomat/ladies' man swagger similar to Jack Kennedy or Captain Kirk.
The Silver Age Flash, for his part, was a dedicated police scientist who tended to be late before a freak lab accident turned him into the fastest man alive. He needs to be trustworthy, likable, dependable. In a word, nice.
So there was always reason to be dubious when Ezra Miller was cast as the character in Justice League. He'd made an early splash playing creepy sociopathic teens in Afterschool and We Need to Talk About Kevin. Would he be able to make the casting against type work? Or, okay, they. We're getting to that.
Anyway, it's not looking so good. Miller is looking more and more like a sexual predator who embraced a non-binary identity and pronouns in order to stave off Me-Too-ing. And it must be said that this was depressingly effective for a while.
So why Miller as the Flash and why has Warner/DC been so slow to cut ties? Well, one could speculate on that. I'll leave it at that.
2 comments:
Neither of us had heard about this guy until today when we read your post. We've talked about performance being the internet/social media mode of delivery and it looks very like Ezra Miller deliberately developed a strange character and writes his own lines to fit the persona of a maniac.
Yes, I've read a bit more about him now and he's had problems in the recent past with violent episodes. Plus, as you noted, he seems to be attracted to prepubescent girls. Why any parent would allow a man to fly their 12 year old daughter anywhere without them along make them completely irresponsible.
As far as the DC/Warner contract goes I think their best bet would be to release him and cut their losses. I mean if Johnny Depp could be fired so could anyone less well known. The Flash was written as a nice guy and Ezra Miller definitely doesn't fit that description.
I knew a little of him since I had seen a library copy of Afterschool, which I'm guessing not many people have. It's interestingly shot, and Michael Stuhlbarg from A Serious Man is a vice-principal. Like I said, the persona from life as well as the movies seems to have started sometime around there.
Often it's true of people that they're some combination of a danger to themselves and a danger to others and that they need help. But it's also true that you need to have a stick in place as well as a carrot, and be able to tell them, "Look, you can think what you want, but don't be a nuisance." But people who run amok like this don't get disciplined. Maskless joggers might.
It's been a while since I've read comics but yeah, that's my impression. I wonder if being part of the Warner Brothers machine impedes your judgment. Working for Disney seems to.
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