Suicide Squad Is Now Rated 15 In The UK
"In that case, I won't take the kids", said no-one ever.
That feels a lot more fitting, doesn't it? Rather than being slapped with a painfully uncool 12A rating (like the PG-13 it's been given in America for some reason), Suicide Squad will debut in the UK with a 15 rating. That suggests it's actually going to be dark and violent and worthy of being a supervillain ensemble rather than a glorified exercise in selling toys to kids. This is good news all round.
The BBFC has given the film the 15 rating based on "sustained threat, moderate violence" in there. Which sounds about right, even if the language used in such rating justifications is weird, archaic and sounds like it's been hauled through a court case.
To be perfectly honest, no rating is going to stop teenagers from seeing it, and no cinema is going to stop them. Parents still claim the right to allow their children to see films no matter what, because they know best. Unfortunately, parents ideas about mental age and appropriate content is often wildly at odds with the truth. I watched Reservoir Dogs when I was 9, and no matter how much REALLY MATURE poetry I was writing, I was not ready for it (though it did kick off my love of film, so go figure).
Anyway, moralising aside, the film passed without cuts and will be shown in its bottom numbing 122 minutes and 44 seconds intended length. Stay til the end, there's bound to be a stinger.
In the US, the PG-13 rating was handed down for “sequences of violence and action throughout, disturbing behavior, suggestive content and language”. It's weird that two classification boards can look at the same thing, come to very similar conclusions and award different ratings.
Still, it's out in a couple of weeks, so it's about time to get really over-excited.