15 Most Controversial Movie Moments 2016

Last year moviegoers were up in arms over hyper-masculine Mad Max being usurped by female characters in his own movie, an Avengers: Age of Ultron rape joke and a woman fleeing from a T-Rex in stiletto heels in Jurassic World, and 2016 is no different. Moviegoers, critics and activists alike have accused this year’s movies of everything from terrible plot decisions and character directions to racism, disablism and transphobia.

Mind, considering some of the movies released this year include cases of blackface, transface, cripface, whitewashing and, just to add insult to injury, a bit of lesbian necrophilia thrown in for good measure, it’s not surprising they courted their fair share of controversy. In their defence though, at least films with controversial elements generate discussion whether it’s over important issues like transphobia and racist casting decisions or something as simple as the morality of a fictional superhero.

So, in the spirit of debate we bring to you the most controversial movie moments of 2016 …

Besides its muddled plot and favouring style over substance, one of the main criticisms leveraged at Zack Snyder’s Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice was its supposedly grim and humourless tone and, moreover, that Ben Affleck’s Batman wasn’t averse to taking a life a or two. Or more precisely, 21 lives in total if certain internet kill count videos are to be believed.

Much of the outrage over the killer Caped Crusader is because comic canon dictates that Batman does not kill, preferring to dole out justice rather than death. But contrary to popular belief Batman has killed before both in his early comic appearances and onscreen. Michael Keaton’s Batman killed, Christian Bale’s Batman killed, even Adam West’s camp Caped Crusader once reduced a foe to anti-matter – albeit perhaps not as indiscriminately Affleck’s Batman kills.

Co-producer Charles Roven has justified this darker incarnation of Batman as a product of how jaded the superhero has become during his years of fighting crime in Gotham, describing him as both ‘jury and executioner’ while Snyder has said Batman’s kills are more like manslaughter than murder. Though Affleck’s performance as Batman received plenty of praise, whether people will warm to his new bloodthirsty side remains to be seen.