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Far-right provocateur Ben Shapiro is back again with more hot takes absolutely nobody asked for, and this time he's whining about a superhero movie as if it's the collapse of society as we know it.
What's got Shapiro all upset is the so-called "woke touches" in the new Robert Pattinson film The Batman.
On Twitter and YouTube, Shapiro complained about the film's reversal of the usual race and gender roles we've come to expect, implying that they ruined the film entirely.
See his tweet below.
I regret to inform you that "The Batman" is bad.— Ben Shapiro (@Ben Shapiro) 1646398683
Shapiro wrote:
"I regret to inform you that 'The Batman' is bad."
Never mind that the film bowed to a whopping $134 million opening weekend--a nearly unheard of coup in the pandemic-crippled film industry at the moment.
There's no way to tell, of course, if its success is owing to the efforts the writers and director made to "woke-ify" the film.
But they sure seemed to do the opposite for Shapiro. So much so that he took to YouTube to post a lengthy takedown of the film. (Warning: The video below contains spoilers for the film.)
Ben Shapiro Reviews 'The Batman' [SPOILERS] youtu.be
The Batman makes several updates to the franchise that Shapiro calls "woke touches."
While the film's villains are played mostly by white men, Black actor Jeffrey Wright plays the traditionally white role of Commissioner Gordon, and Black actresses Jayme Lawson and Zoe Kravitz play the traditionally white male mayor and Catwoman, respectively. (Though the latter is not exactly a new take--several Black women have played Catwoman in the past, including Eartha Kitt and Halle Berry.)
In his review, Shapiro claims that these "woke touches" add up to one thing:
"The film hates Batman... And this drives me up a wall..."
Shapiro then claims he's not bothered by the "woke touches" in the film before going on to list them.
"Every white character is apparently bad, like all of them--fine whatever, I don't really care about that. That's fine..."
"You have Catwoman saying stuff about white privilege elites..."
"A lot of these lines seem like throwaways for 'film lefty Twitter,' but the main theme is not a throwaway. The main theme is... the film despises Batman."
IDK, man, sounds like you actually do care about the "woke touches"! Like a lot!
To be fair, Shapiro then goes on to give critiques of the film that, while entirely subjective, are at least based in legitimate gripes.
But all that was overshadowed by Shapiro's obvious distaste over the "woke touches," and people on Twitter weren't buying it.
Without having seen the movie yet if Ben Shapiro hates the Batman that means that the movie is actually really good but it has like a throwaway line about white privilege or something so he couldn't help himself and just shidded and farted inside the theatrepic.twitter.com/Jv6iiFwmnv— Dimitri (@Dimitri) 1646484883
Thank god Ben Shapiro hates The Batman because that means it\u2019s most likely the best movie ever madehttps://twitter.com/benshapiro/status/1499730893027618818\u00a0\u2026— Kyle (@Kyle) 1646400844
White privilege being mentioned ruins a movie, white ppl being portrayed as the villians is bad and a POC Batwoman being against white privilege is annoying.\n\nI wonder what his real issue is? I'm kidding, it's pretty obvious.— Michael Malone \ud83c\udf08 (he/him) (@Michael Malone \ud83c\udf08 (he/him)) 1646569064
I regret to inform you that everyone watching the movie doesn't care about your opinion, which is as inconsequential as any other thing.— Dipto G. (@Dipto G.) 1646404143
https://youtu.be/8y9IQVabLAw\u00a0 \n\nBen Shapiro never fails to make me wince with his garbage political takes, but this time, he's stepped onto our turf, and proves that he has absolutely no clue what he's talking about.\n#TheBatman #Batman #TheBatman2022 #Batman2022pic.twitter.com/czxWchkya0— You're a Pup of this too... (@You're a Pup of this too...) 1646769956
I respect peoples opinions but if you genuinely won\u2019t see The Batman because of something Ben Shapiro said then you need helphttps://twitter.com/benshapiro/status/1499730893027618818\u00a0\u2026— Tarnished Toonhead (@Tarnished Toonhead) 1646403606
Ben Shapiro didn\u2019t like The Batman? \n\nI guess we\u2019ll add it to the list of other things he doesn\u2019t like. Right next to people of color.pic.twitter.com/zIdq34zKb4— Steve Rogers as Captain Batmerica (@Steve Rogers as Captain Batmerica) 1646458424
The Batman is by far the most comic accurate Batman. Do you even read comic books?— Codey Dauch \ud83c\udfa8 (@Codey Dauch \ud83c\udfa8) 1646402021
RT to scare ben Shapiro #thebatmanpic.twitter.com/IP3T3zkeuo— Elbito (@Elbito) 1646528242
Ben Shapiro: \u2018Blade Runner 2049 is the best film of 2017 and Dune is a masterpiece!\u2019 \n\nAlso Shapiro: \u2018The Batman has a woke orientation because Catwoman mentions white privilege once and Jim Gordon is black\u2019— The Kavernacle (@The Kavernacle) 1646685436
Shapiro may hate The Batman, but critics and audiences seem to disagree: The film garnered an 86% Rotten Tomatoes score with critics and an 89% with viewers.