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This post contains: spoiler About “animals”
“Animals” is Ben Affleck’s latest Netflix thriller, and it remains to be seen how critics and audiences will react to it (we didn’t like it). At the very least, fans of the former DC Extended Universe (aka Snyderverse) will be happy to see two veterans of the now-shuttered franchise working together. That’s because “Animals” features both Affleck and his former Justice League colleague Ray Fisher.
Affleck, of course, plays Batman in the DCEU, and Fisher co-starred with him as Victor Stone/Cyborg in “Justice League” and the 2021 revival project “Zack Snyder’s Justice League.” Unfortunately, “Justice League” was a box office disaster that essentially decimated the DCEU, and while it seems like everyone involved had a tough time, Fisher had an especially tough time. He alleged on-set misconduct and accused director Joss Whedon of “serious, offensive, unprofessional and completely unacceptable” behavior. This led to an investigation by Warner Bros., which led to “corrective action” (according to The Hollywood Reporter).
It was a sad conclusion to Fisher’s time in the DCEU, and the DCEU itself has been in a bit of a tizzy due to a series of failures that led to a similarly sad conclusion to the franchise in 2023. Since then, Fisher has starred in Snyder’s strange sci-fi film Rebel Moon for Netflix and the 2024 drama The Piano Lesson, which received mostly positive reviews. Now he’s teamed up with Affleck again for “Animals.”
Ray Fisher has a small part in Animals.
Ben Affleck knows exactly what went wrong with “Justice League,” pointing out the way the film was caught between its lighter heart and darker sensibilities and the fact that Warner Bros. executives tried to impose their will on Zack Snyder. After the missteps of the team-up movies, the DCEU continued to struggle, but delivered more hits along the way. Ultimately, we never got to see Affleck and Ray Fisher together again (“Zack Snyder’s Justice League” notwithstanding).
As for “Animals,” we won’t be able to see them together on screen, but it’s nice to know that they collaborated on the project. Affleck almost certainly had a hand in Fisher’s casting, as he not only played mayoral candidate Mark Kimball, but also directed and co-wrote the thriller. In the film, the former Cyborg actor plays Ron Sperling, a UCLA teacher who is having an affair with Kimball’s wife, Abigail Kimball (Kerry Washington). Unfortunately for Fisher, he’s there to tell Abigail a shocking secret she needs to keep from her husband, and he doesn’t really have much to do in the movie.
Later in the film, when Mark discovers his wife’s affair, he becomes a major figure in the Kimball family. However, he is only physically present in one scene, meeting Abigail in a parking lot to convince Mark to leave. After that, he exists only in the form of texts sent to Abigail’s cell phone. If “Animals” had been more streamlined, Fisher would have had more to do. Unfortunately, the movie has bigger problems than giving Fisher more screen time.
Animals are no good, but Affleck should work with Fisher again
It was announced that Ben Affleck and Matt Damon would reunite for the Netflix crime thriller ‘Animals’ in 2024. But Affleck shut down ‘Animals’ two weeks before it was scheduled to shoot after learning that Spike Lee was producing a remake of his kidnapping film (High and Low), Highest 2 Lowest. Considering the version we got isn’t Affleck’s finest hour, I wonder what the original version of this movie would have looked like. Would the movie have been better if he had just been behind the camera? How did original stars Matt Damon and Jennifer Garner take this material? And could we have seen more of Abigail Kimball and Ron Sperling’s relationship?
As it stands, it’s unlikely ‘Animals’ will be known as one of Affleck’s best movies. It’s a strangely unappealing little movie that’s often funny in unintentional ways and comes off like so many other bland, lifeless streaming movies. It’s a surprising development considering it was shot by Academy Award-winning cinematographer Robert Elswit of “There Will Be Blood” fame. That’s to say nothing of the fact that the film arrived under the shadow of Affleck’s embrace of AI. The actor insists that the AI used in ‘Animals’ is nothing like the ethically questionable creation techniques that have sparked controversy in recent years, but he refuses to reveal what he used it for.
In that sense, Fisher is probably just glad he hasn’t appeared in more movies than he has. But it’s at least nice to see these two DCEU refugees teaming up after being at the center of the destruction that was the ill-fated franchise. Let’s hope Affleck gets his act together soon and makes something decent and recasts Fisher.