Deadpool's movie rating will not change despite wishes of uninformed parents
Heading into the premiere of Deadpool, it was obvious that the movie would spark a ton of conversation. But it's safe to say that most of us didn't think this prolonged, cockamamie ratings debate would be the dominant one to spring forth.
Instead of discussing any element of the movie, the biggest headlines going into, and coming out of, its first week is about those who shouldn't be allowed to see it. That's right, the biggest topic has been about how unfair it is that Deadpool garnered an R rating and how poor, poor children can't see the movie because of it[1].
Petitions have been started, Facebook posts have been made and tweets have been issued, all begging and pleading that the movie featuring the "merc with a mouth" be lowered to PG-13 so that their precious, darling children can attend without them having to actually be there and be a parent.
My first thought on this is: do you really want to publicize your questionable parenting skills? This isn't some important political or historical piece; it's a movie about a cult-hero comic book character. What about that does your child need to see? I mean, let's face facts here: most of the kids seeing these movies aren't reading the comics. That's especially true of Deadpool, considering that most kids should not be allowed to read his comics anyways.
Honestly, if you decide that your child desperately needs to see Deadpool, then bite the bullet, accompany your kid to the theater and prepare for all the "are you serious?" looks that will almost definitely come your way. It's your parenting decision, but you should most certainly prepare for a healthy amount of glares.
Perhaps most importantly, do you even realize what you're asking when you ask to have the rating of the movie changed? You're asking to see a bastardized version of what you claim you desperately need to see. Think about any movie you've been clamoring to see. Now change it in a pretty significant way. That makes no sense.
The movie got an R rating because there is a ton of swearing, even more gratuitous violence and a lot of boobs. These are all things that epitomize Deadpool. Without any one of them, a film-adaptation isn't doing the character justice.
To get down to a PG-13 rating, you'd have to eliminate all of those or at least heavily tone them down. A filtered Deadpool is no Deadpool at all. So do you really need your kid to see him so badly that you're willing to change the character and his story for the sake of appeasing your little booger-eaters?
So to the bad parents of America who just don't get it: stop. Stop it right now. Even the folks behind the movie are having the character tell parents to not bring their kids to the movie, for crying out loud:
Follow up letter to all parents out there. Please RT. pic.twitter.com/nmha0dyzun[2]
— Deadpool (@ComedicMerc) February 9, 2016[3]
So don't ruin it for the rest of us. Your children may be the center of your universe, but they aren't the center of ours. Let them stream it or sneak off to a friend's house to see it when it hits DVD like the rest of us had to do when we were younger (it was a lot harder to pull this off back in my day, I tells ya).
Either way, stop trying to get the world to cater to you. Deadpool the movie should be a f—ing R-rated movie and that's the end of it.
References
- ^ poor, poor children can't see the movie because of it (www.al.com)
- ^ pic.twitter.com/nmha0dyzun (t.co)
- ^ February 9, 2016 (twitter.com)
