Rated TR for Take Responsibility

This is a bit of a followup to my post on Monday about Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. Basically I argued that very young kids should not be watching this movie due to the intensity of some scenes and the horror elements. I personally would be very hesitant to allow anyone under 12 to see it.

After I posted that, I found out that there is an outcry online of people who think that the movie should have received an R rating due to those elements. I'm sorry, but no. The reason that PG-13 exists is because of these very kinds of intense elements that warrant a stronger warning than PG but don't hit the bar for an R (Restricted) rating. It all goes back to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, which received a PG rating but was far too intense for younger viewers (especially on the big screen). What followed was the implementation of the PG-13 rating. 

I would argue that Dr. Strange is exactly the kind of movie the PG-13 rating was created for. Again, it had no nudity, no serious profanity (if there was some, I don't recall), and comic book violence. But it was intense, dark, and scary.

What this really reveals is a problem on a couple of fronts. First of the there is a problem with parents who don't do their homework to investigate what kind of movie they are taking their kids to and completely ignore the PG-13 rating. Shame on them.

The other problem is with the rating system in general. Let's face it: it's a broken system that's not super helpful. You can find tons of material online about the challenges with the board that assigns movies ratings, beginning with the fact that there are no clear guidelines. It's a very subjective rating. 

Also, the ratings factor in issues such as violence, language, and sex, but that's it. But you never know why a particular movie received the rating it did. Maybe a system similar to Netflix which shows some content would be helpful. It certainly couldn't hurt.

And what about worldview? There are a lot of PG and maybe even G movies that I wouldn't watch as a Jesus follower because of the secular worldview that they normalize or even propagate. But, then again, I do my homework (as much as possible) before I go to see a movie.

Maybe that's the lesson - be an informed consumer instead of being a surprised and dismayed one. (Or a parent who's kids are having nightmares for weeks to come!)