Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is widely criticized. Call it too grim. Call it too long. Call it full of unnecessary characters and a ham-fisted, tin-eared appropriation of the Death Of Superman story crammed into 3 minutes of screen time. Whatever you do, don’t call it a flop.

Batman

At least, not around Ben Affleck. It is the second-highest-grossing DC movie at $873 million, and in an interview, Affleck called out people who labeled it a flop.

“It was a huge hit movie. More people went to see that than any movie I’ve ever made in my career. It was the biggest hit of my career. And then it had a lot editorial negativity. It was interesting, that movie, because it was judged not necessarily on execution so much as on its tone.

He also talks about the movie in terms of tone and execution, directly addressing critics who talk about the movie being too dark, too serious, and lacking in fun. He actually likes that:

“People seemed to want to have a lighter tone to the movie, and I thought that was interesting because it’s subjective. Tone is not a qualitative thing. It’s subjective, right? Some tones resonate with me that might not with you.  And the tone of the movie was really parallel to the Frank Miller book [The Dark Knight Returns], which I liked and thought was great. I’m glad that so many people went and so many people liked the movie. It worked out.”

So there! Consider us told. To be fair, many still point to Ben Affleck’s interpretation of Batman as the high-point of the movie, particularly calling out the warehouse fight scene as some of the best Batman on film.

Check back every day for movie news and reviews at the Last Movie Outpost