I know everything can't be kid-friendly, but at the same time, I'm annoyed that all comics, particularly the big ones, slant towards mature (or the trappings of being mature without actually being mature).  Part of me would love to see an Arkham-style Batman movie but I know realistically that while that works for video games, it might not work for features.  But Marvel, particularly the Avengers, I'm fine with them being wide-audience releases, I love that kids and parents are seeing them, I love that this cool thing we dig is accessible to a wider audience.

Oh he'll ya... Let's make these sonzabitcez R rated. Hard R.

Wait, that's not what you guys are meaning.

I don't.  I really don't.  The Marvel movies have managed to hit that sweet spot where anyone can see them and enjoy them without anyone feeling alienated.  It's sort of like a specialized, slightly more edged Pixar in that way.  They're cool and awesome enough to appeal to the young (and the young at heart), but inoffensive enough to keep parents happy but never bored.  That's HUGE, I wouldn't want them to mess with that.  And I imagine Disney does too, that's why even if the MPAA didn't enforce those standards, the Marvel board would.  So nekkid Widow isn't happening.

The big problem is I remember what sh*t the comics turned into when they dropped the Comics Code Authority, they just amped up the cheap sex, violence, and cursing, it was more "kids pretending to be adult" than actually being adult, or mature, and that sucked, and I wouldn't want the movies to turn into that.

Now, we did see Wolverine's butt in Days Of Future Past, which was fine, but I always felt Jessica Alba's brief moments of fake nudity in Fantastic Four were cheap and insulting, both to her, her character, and her audience.  And I think when you have the freedom to just drop some nudity in there without a possible repercussion, that could open the floodgates to some garbage we don't want.

Having said that, I don't think movies should have to p*ssyfoot around the obvious to secure the mystical PG-13 rating.  I remember working in a video store and when we would debate about what movie to put in (a privilege that got revoked once some *ssholes in another store put on "Not Another Teen Movie"), that rating did NOTHING to help us decide if it was okay, we had to think back and remember "okay, was there a lot of cursing? Was there nudity? Was there a sex scene?")  Everyone shoots for that rating, and all these exceptions are granted, so it becomes meaningless and arbitrary.

Think about Mr and Mrs Smith, the Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie vehicle.  Now, they had a makeout scene but it feels like EVERYONE wanted/expected that to be a full-on sex scene (if there was EVER a time for that).  I could imagine that being in there, but it still wouldn't be enough in my mind to warrant an R-rating.

I could totally see some nudity being okay for The Dark Knight Rises as well, I mean, Batman never gets laid, and it's a movie (allegedly) for a more mature audience, why not?  and if anyone had the right to yell out a curse word, it's Bruce Wayne.  Come on, let's just hear him yell "f*ck!" one time after losing everything.  You could even hang a lantern on it, have Alfred tell him "I didn't bring you up to use such colourful language, Master Bruce."

There's a little glimpse of bareback nudity in Guardians Of The Galaxy, but I bet the exception is made because it's an alien.

And don't give me this unrated movie crap, all that says to me is that the big screen one that they expect me to pay 10-15 bucks to see (inconveniently) is compromised and castrated.  I hear anything like that is going on, forget it, I'm not going to see your movie on the big screen, you lost my ticket.  And it's already so much work to get me out there, the movies can't afford to do that.  And they don't rent the unrated/extended versions, either, so the only way to see what might be the "good" version is to watch sanitized version first, no thank you.

And these little rules, by the way, they have consequences: you keep seeing bloodless stabbings and all this violence without repercussions (broken bones, blood, suffering... that gets you an R while the actions that cause that get a PG-13), you can imagine people starting to disassociate shooting someone with someone suffering and dying horribly.  You can't show women having sexual pleasure?  Well, you perpetuate the idea that sex is all about a man's pleasure, it's one-sided, and it helps in some small part to perpetuate that whole culture of objectification.

What we really need to change that PG-13 dominance (outside of a better organization than the MPAA) is more movies like Bully and Blue Is The Warmest Colour, movies that actually challenge the easy classification of art by arbitrary guidelines and actually engage a discussion.  We need stuff that challenges the status quo, gives us more options so that our art can grow laterally and horizontally, instead of what we're seeing now where we just compile more and more specific exceptions so we wind up with giant robot testicles in a summer blockbuster.