The Dark Knight Rises, And the other Nolan Batman Films Options

[NiteFall]

It has to be said I can see both sides of the argument. At work we have been told to advise people with small children that Dark Knight may not be suitable for them as it is very dark and quite disturbing in places. But on the other hand you don't actually see an awful lot of what would be considered "graphic" violence. There's virtually no blood anywhere (as far as I can tell the only place where you do see blood is on the table after the Joker performs his magic rick there's a very small patch and no bad language, so if they ad awarded it a 15 rating there would have been a quite strong case to say they were heavy-handed. Really, all it does is show up how much of a bullshit rating the 12A really is.

[empathy-with-bea...]

What's rubbish about their argument is that they have to voice their conerns about it "infuencing young minds" and reference "using knives" so that it sounds like they're making a vague comment on youth knife crime, most of which is committed by children old enough to see a 15 certificate film. I'd have more resepct for the argument if they just said "The atmosphere of the film will scare and disturb young children because of the realism of the portrayal of the Joker's sadism and that's probably not a good thing." and left it at that.

Or they could just bring back the 12 certificate, which is exactly what this film is.

[sweetbutinsane]

Or they could just bring back the 12 certificate, which is exactly what this film is.

I agree.

Why did they change to 12A in the first place? Because of America having a PG-13 certificate?

This post has been edited by sweetbutinsane: Aug 6 2008, 04:37 PM

[maian]

I agree.

Why did they change to 12A in the first place? Because of America having a PG-13 certificate?

There were complaints that children couldn't go and see Spider-Man because it was a 12 and the character had a broad appeal amongst children, so it was introduced to account for instances where a parent thinks their child can handle a film that has some darkness and/or violence in it but which is still considered a kid's film.

I personally think that the 12A is a good idea since it actually puts responsibility in the hands of parents, it's just that people take it as writ that anything that is a 12A is suitable for kids, rather than consulting the information that is provided about the film.

[Starscream`s Gho...]

I personally think that the 12A is a good idea since it actually puts responsibility in the hands of parents, it's just that people take it as writ that anything that is a 12A is suitable for kids, rather than consulting the information that is provided about the film.

Thus proving that it's a bad idea, imho. When I went to see TDK there were quite a few young children there, who I would never have thought were old enough to handle the obvious themes in the movie.

But then, I'm a big old cynic.

[NiteFall]

In the past week I have seen at least a dozen small children led out of Dark Knight by their parents. In three cases they were actually sobbing. Yet every single parent that I have tried to warn about it being unsuitable for small children has insisted that it would be quite all right and in several cases that it was none of my business what they take their kids to see. Coincidentally we have also put up signs everywhere stating that tickets are non-refundable and non-exchangable. Nothing to do with nearly a dozen parents insisting that TDK is too horrible for their little ones and that we should swap their tickets for them / give them a refund because their kids couldn't sit through the whole thing that we had on the first 2 days of release. No, really. Complete coincidence.

[Outatime]

The only vaguely sensible concern I've heard about the 12A issue is that there is a lot of merchandise for the film aimed at children.

[Starscream`s Gho...]

Yeah, because nothing screams kiddy action figure like 'psycho in a nurse uniform'.

[Outatime]

Toys R Us search results

[Rebus]

Over here there are shit Batman and Joker toys being given away with Hungry Jacks (Burger King) Dark Meals, which I found rather odd.

[Peronel]

Yeah, the ads are quite disturbing.

[widowspider]

I finally saw it in IMAX last night - sadly, I was in the second row as we got there about 10 minutes before it started, but the quality was just superb.

The film was great - it was very dark without needing to resort to lots of violence and played more on the psychological effect that the Joker had. The most horrible part for me was the magic trick - again, they cleverly didn't show the actual violence but left you to imagine it, which is always scarier. I liked the different voices that Bale used as Wayne and Batman, it made sense to me and also really separated the two aspects of Bruce's personality to the audience and to the people in that world - it'd be pretty difficult to put Bruce and Batman together.

My biggest gripe was Harvey Dent - I wanted more from him before he died, but I liked the way they used him as a symbol throughout the movie. I also had no idea they were going to kill off Rachel Dawes, so I was really surprised by that.

[Zoe]

You might want to add some spoiler tags to that!

[widowspider]

Sorry - I assumed that most people who are reading this thread have actually seen the film. I avoided it like the plague until I went last night.

Spoiler tags added.

[Jimmay]

I liked the different voices that Bale used as Wayne and Batman, it made sense to me and also really separated the two aspects of Bruce's personality to the audience and to the people in that world - it'd be pretty difficult to put Bruce and Batman together.

Bruce Wayne is Batman?? Nice one Rachel!