SWTOTD SWTOTD 03 - PG13 8:03 PM | Zeroplate There's rampant speculation running around online that Revenge of the Sith is going to get a PG13 rating for violence. I personally watched this rumor spread, the way these sorts of things do in the real world, when a customer at my local comic book shop told the shopkeeper "I heard Lucas might get a PG13 for Sith--it's gotta be violent, right?" While I have no trouble believing ROTS will be the darkest chapter of the Star Wars saga, and while Lucas didn't exactly shoot down the PG13 idea in his Vanity Fair interview, I still have a hard time believing that a Star Wars movie will not be PG. In fact, believe or not, I don't think that a Star Wars movie, any Star Wars movie, needs to be PG13 in order to deliver the kind of violence that tells the story. Every movie so far has had someone getting dismembered. Jedi saw several aliens being eaten alive by several bigger aliens. Empire had a bloody Wampa stringing Luke up for dinner in the ice cave, a gutting of a Taun-Taun, and Luke chopping his father's head off on Degobah. Even the cantina scene from the first film has a bloody dismemberment, a "shoot first ask questions later" killing, and the destruction of the entire planet of Alderran. These movies are all violent, and Sith will be no different, but I don't suspect we'll see Anakin splattering the blood of his enemies across the walls. As much as those of us who grew up with the first batch and are struggling with the new batch might like to think otherwise, the Star Wars movies are fantasy films for kids. That they appeal to adults or teenagers is nice, but it's not particularly their aim. Lucas clearly wanted to create a space fantasy that would be an homage to the Buck Rogers serials he watched as a kid, and he has. Star Wars is pulpy entertainment with badly written dialogue framed by eye-popping action scenes, with a touch of the broadly-stroked mythological thrown in to keep it interesting. The only reason we have the films past the first one is that they are able to connect with the broadest possible audience imaginable, and undermining that by slapping a PG13 on the final installment would seem unwise. This is Star Wars' last hurrah on the big stage, and as such all the Darth Vader Potato Heads and Sith Flavored M&Ms and Jar Jar underoos have to be sold on the weight of this final film. As much as I don't think we need a PG13 Revenge of the Sith, I don't think Lucasfilm and Fox are prepared to give us one either. Back to Top {0} Comments

PREVIOUS THOUGHTS SWTOTD 03 - PG13