When I walked in to see the latest X-Men movie Logan, I was expected a really good movie based on the high praise it had gotten from critics. There are times when even very high hopes can turn into underestimation, and that is what happened with this film.
I am not the biggest fan of the X-Men film franchise, as in I have only seen the first three of them. However, I was very excited for Logan due to my experience, and the promise the R-rating was going to give me. With this rating, it meant I could finally see The Wolverine actually stick his adamantium claws in and through his enemies. The film delivered this, more times than expected.
It also gave me everything else an R-rating can, and I feel the need to praise it for that.
Film ratings are an interesting subject for me. This may seem like an odd point in today's film climate, where every movie released seems to either be PG or PG-13. There was a time, not that long ago mind you, where all four of the various ratings tended to be just as common as the either. Now yes, I'm aware of the NC-17 rating, however, the popularity of that rating died out long ago, and practically does not exist anymore, even outside of the mainstream side of the industry. There is also a rating for children even younger than the G rating suggests, but forgive me, that is so rare I do not know the name of this rating off-hand.
The R-rating, in fact, is my favorite of the ratings. I do not discredit the other ratings, there are many PG films I adore and I can even say the same for many G-rated films. My most loved PG-13 films are admittedly mostly from the time when PG-13 was earned instead of slapped on, but I am hopeful that that day will return soon enough, and even still, I have no ill-will for the rating, only the fact it is misused for higher box office results.
What I love about the R-rating is just how adult it allows movies to be. A movie like Logan is rated R for violence alone, and it deserves it, the violence is more brutal than I expected. I've always had a respect for a film that can make you flinch from how little it holds back, and Logan is now the only superhero movie to cause me to flinch. I think my argument has had some back-up from this film's critical success. It's not uncommon for people to think the violent sections of a movie to go too far, and this movie went further than I and I'm sure many other people expected, and it is loved already.
I'm also going to say, that if this film was not as violent as it was, there would be a problem.
This film doesn't just hold back the violence. It also does not hold back in it's themes. I can sum the entire film up like this: This is a movie about being old and living with the kind of person you've been. This movie took one of the most popular superheroes in film and comics, and asked the question "Wouldn't he hate how his life turned out by the time he's physically sixty?" This film doesn't stop at asking, it answers it and does not hold back in the brutality of the answer.
Because it is so brutal, so honest and downright nihilistic about it's theme and subjects, if the violence wasn't so brutal, I can guarantee you the critics would have complained. Imagine this statement coming from a film critic and see if you can believe it's existence: "For a film that refuses to hold back in portraying wasted potential and lifetime, Logan seems to be too afraid of scaring off potential viewers by being too violent." Or "This is still a movie about The Wolverine, I find it odd that by going 'adult', it still feels as action packed as it's predecessors".
You don't always have to be very violent just because you are R-rated, but Logan marries everything you might associate with a movie made for mature audiences. If we hold our cards right, I would not be surprised if this movie is the final straw to bringing back the R-rating for mainstream films.
Now, I say final straw because I have another recent film I think helps reminds us why it's a shame the rating was practically faded out. Believe it or not, it's Sausage Party.
Seth Rogan's vulgar animated movie from 2016 was both a parody of Pixar movies like Toy Story, and a surprisingly well-written satire of religion. I won't lie, when I saw the trailer for the movie, I thought it looked like garbage.
However, I am also an animation buff. The R-rating vanished from animation much faster than it did live-action, and so when this movie came into existence, I knew I had to at least go out and buy it, even if I didn't find the time to watch it in theaters.
I was shocked when the movie got great reviews. Critics loved it, audiences were fine with it. Most reviews I watched or read tended to like it better if they were unfamiliar with adult animated movies. I ended up figuring this would be a movie I would end up liking after all, but not that much considering my library of Ralph Bakshi films.
I bought the movie on Blu-ray, and I loved it.
While I do understand those who criticized the movie for being childishly vulgar (Although I'm a vulgar person in real life and usually can tell when vulgarity is just there too be "funny", and I didn't notice forced vulgarity that much other than one line in the beginning), I think this movie really helps show off how much the visual medium of animation can work with the R-rating.
As I said, this movie is a parody of Pixar movies. Children do see those movies, but, the way this movie does it's parody would quite possibly go over children's heads. However, an adult who has either grown up with Pixar or has watched them due to being a parent and watched them with their child, will understand exactly what they are doing, and will find the jokes and slight references to be funny.
I also said it is a clever satire of religion. Children understand religion, but not as much as an adult. This film treats the subject more maturely than most other films I've seen do so. It is just as mean to extremists thoughts as most, but, it does not pick-and-choose which extremism to target, it targets all. I loved the movie for that. I've always hated when religious satire clearly makes sure to pet and groom whatever religion the creators clearly believe in. This one makes it clear that the creator's probably swing one way, and make sure to be blunt and say it may or may not be right or wrong and any opinion really is valid as long as you don't use it as an excuse to be horrible. It's lesson we don't hear as much as we need to, and the movie manages to say it while also being funny.
You can't do that with PG-13. I have seen G and PG-rated films that dealt with mature themes very well. That did not pull punches. The same is true for the PG-13 I just made fun of. However, you can only pull so many punches before the ratings standards have to stop you. It's good that they do, in all honesty, as each rating should try to be what they are instead of trying so hard to be something else that they become confused.
In fact, that is my real point. We need more R-rated movies, because they are incredibly adult, and mature art helps us answer our looming questions and brace life for what it is. This can be done with other films, but a great R-rated movie does this better than any other film could hope to achieve. Maybe Logan and Sausage Party will help this happen. While Deadpool came out before the both of these films, and was also highly successful, I chose the two films we expected even less than a Deadpool movie.
When Hollywood said "Okay, we'll make more R-rated superhero movies", no one expected one so fast, nor the Wolverine movie they'd been clamoring for since the original X-men. Seth Rogan's tweet that revealed the original trailer was a shock to his fans almost as much as the rest of the world. Not even I was expecting the first R-rated CGI film to exist as soon as 2016 (Not counting South Park Bigger, Longer, and Uncut, I'm aware CGI was heavily used in that movie).
There is nothing like an R-rated movie that knows it is such every second. Animated, live-action, superhero, comedy, horror, action, there are many ways to do every genre and style while being as adult as you can. Many of the most meaningful movie experiences I've have was with the R-rating, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.
We don't need to erase the others for the sake of one rating dominating, we've seen how unpopular that movie can end up. I just want a more equal amount of every rating again, and I am personally most looking forward to the movies you have to be over seventeen to see.