Last week, Quentin Tarantino released his list of the top 10 movies of 2013, and as expected, it contained a few titles (Lone Ranger, Kick-Ass 2) that you’re unlikely to encounter on any other best of year list.
In an interview with the French weekly Les Inrockuptibles, Tarantino attempted to explain his admiration for The Lone Ranger. But it was a throwaway remark that Tarantino made about Batman that’s raising the most eyebrows.
Asked how he feels about Ben Affleck being cast as Batman in Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel sequel, Tarantino ventured the following: “I have to admit that I don’t really have an opinion. Why? Because Batman is not a very interesting character. For any actor. There is simply not much to play. I think Michael Keaton did it the best, and I wish good luck to Ben Affleck. But you know who would have made a great Batman? Alec Baldwin in the ’80s.”;
Statistically, we knew that there had to be at least one person on the planet who thought that Michael Keaton was a better Batman than Christian Bale. But who would have guessed that that one person would be Quentin Tarantino?
Regarding The Lone Ranger, Tarantino said that he loved the opening forty-five minutes and the climactic action scene, but found the stretch in between a little rough-going.
“The first forty-five minutes are excellent,”; he said. “The next forty-five minutes are a little soporific. It was a bad idea to split the bad guys in two groups; it takes hours to explain and nobody cares. Then comes the train scene—incredible! When I saw it, I kept thinking, “What, that’s the film that everybody says is crap? Seriously?’ “