Ross Patrol ([info]richter_belmont) wrote,
@ 2009-05-04 03:25:00
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Current mood: weird
Current music:Suspicious Minds - (Elvis Presley)
Entry tags:terminator, wolverine, x-men

Strange Days...
You know times have gotten a little strange when the latest X-Men game is rated Mature, and the new Terminator movie is PG-13.


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[info]specific_chris
2009-05-07 01:06 am UTC (link)
I guess there's been a bit of a paradigm shift as to what is more of an "adult" subject and thus going to have stronger content. Wolverine is no longer just for kids on Fox Kids Saturday morning (rather, those kids have grown up and are now us), and the idea of robotic Austrian dudes punching things and making things go boom is no longer awesome enough to market to just adults. I think that whole "Dark Knight" thing has solidified the idea that super hero movies that are less camp and all badass are the world-beaters, which is a shame because super hero movies used to be hilarious.

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[info]richter_belmont
2009-05-07 09:08 am UTC (link)
You're right. I just have a problem with the rationale; it seems like fishy marketing tactics.

With X-Men Origins, the logical side of me says, "You know Ross, Wolverine's claws WOULD slice people up if he was real. Technically, it's unrealistic to tone the violence down in the comics and movies." However, you also have to consider whether it fits the tone of not only the movie, but the parameters of the universe, and Stan Lee's vision for the character.

Is Wolverine a character that would decapitate someone? Maybe, given the circumstances. Would Lee approve of frequent, gratuitous violence though? Pretty doubtful. Granted, I haven't read many comics since the 90's, but the most graphic scenes I remember seeing with Wolverine were silhouetted blood splatters.

Not to mention the DS and Wii versions are actually E10 and Teen, respectively, whereas only the 360/PS3 versions are Mature. It just has this feeling of "Hey, let's XTREME THIS UP to sell more copies to the older crowd!" In a way, you could look at the realism as a nice touch, but at the same time, I can't see it adding anything particularly compelling to the gameplay or story. Of course, soldiers probably can't shoot at Wolverine if they don't have arms or heads, so I guess there's that.

Terminator is kind of the opposite phenomenon. It was always kind of a gloomy and violent series, though not ostentatiously so. The violence was less for shock value and more to demonstrate that the Terminators are ruthless killing machines.

I'd go see a PG-rated Terminator if the storytelling was good... but the PG-13, Christian Bale-ized (not to mention Arnold-less, which they probably hope people don't notice) Terminator just suggests to me they don't really know what to do with the series, and they're fishing for ticket sales. I hope I'm wrong.

I'm not the biggest fan of the movie-hopping Bale (only Jason Statham is more ubiquitous nowadays), but on the bright side, he HAS to be better than the pitiful John Connor of Terminator 3. So it can't be all bad!

Anyway, not mad at you or anything... just venting, haha. And yeah, superhero movies did used to have a lot of humor value. Because of SGE, I have come to view Batman & Robin as a work of genius.

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