Have you ever watched a movie that would have been SO much better if had been rated R? If you say no then you’re either not watching enough movies or you’re not being honest with yourself since quite a few movies could benefit from being rated R. Heck, Twilight might have been insanely popular if they’d gone with the traditional blood and gore that goes along with horror monsters. But there are some movies that would have been undeniably better had they been given a hard R rating and been given the chance to just go for broke and do what came naturally from the comics or from whatever source material they came from. When the comics that some of these movies are derived from are considered to be more R-rated than the actual movies, one has to wonder if it’s worth delivering the content in a way that makes it friendly for kids but downplayed for everyone else. It’s obvious that a lot of movies want to appeal to a different demographic and will be as a rule keep things turned down, but were they given free rein to do what they wanted, these movies could be far more popular if they were allowed to be given an R rating and as a result allowed to do what was needed to the point across.
Here are a few movies that would have been far better if they’d been rated R.
5. Drag to Me Hell
How in the world does a movie that’s title is Drag Me to Hell NOT get rated R? It could have been due to the idea that the content wasn’t quite as disturbing as it could have been, which is hard to imagine since Christine was under constant threat of being dragged into the netherworld, but it’s still hard to think of why this wouldn’t join so many other horror movies with a hard R. It didn’t exactly fail when it came to the box office, but for one reason or another this movie didn’t fire on all cylinders and people weren’t talking about it that often after it was released. The title alone however should have been a reason why a strong R rating could have made it a little better.
4. Suicide Squad
It’s like Harley says, they’re bad guys, it’s what they do. But this was a candy-coated version of what should have been a thrill ride through the DC universe since to be fair there were a few decent villains in the mix and it could have been a lot better of a movie. But the way things were handled and the fact that the enemies basically turned to dust, or whatever that was when they were dispatched kind of made it feel like a video game that had been set to ‘beginner’. It’s kind of amusing really to think that Harley’s individual movie was a lot more controversial than this one when the fun that could have been had in Suicide Squad was dimmed down in such a way.
3. X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Talk about a letdown. Does anyone ever remember reading Wolverine comics when they were kid? This guy popped his claws rather frequently in a fight and there as always some blood involved no matter if we didn’t always get to see it. Heck, I can remember a panel when he shoved his fist into someone’s nose and blood was spraying across the panel. But obviously things needed to be toned down for the kids that were watching and that meant that any blood that was going to be shown would be minimal and rather lame in appearance. At least Logan allowed a good representation of the effects that adamantium claws have on flesh.
2. Ghost Rider
Ghost Rider is a demon. You know, from hell. So clipping his demonic wings, so to speak, felt like a huge gaffe since this is another hero that can but doesn’t always do a mass amount of damage unless of course, it’s to the guilty that he seeks out and punishes. But something about this movie being any less than R made it feel that it was simply being given a cover and not much else. It could have been far scarier and less amusing since Blackheart, who came off as a pretty boy more than a dedicated villain, was essentially useless until the last battle, where he was still rather useless.
1. Jurassic Park
It was never going to happen to be realistic about it, especially since Jurassic Park was meant to appeal to kids as well as to adults, but pulling away when the blood was about to start flowing or showing only grisly bits here and there was mildly disappointing. Whether it would have made Jurassic Park any better is hard to say in a definitive tone, but it would have pleased adults and adolescents quite a bit.
Sometimes an R rating allows for desired content is all.
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