First off let me say this is not my review of the movie, I will have that up later today. (I’ll just say that it was amazing!)

But, I actually felt that this issue was more important, so I wanted to get this up right away for those of you thinking about going to see Watchmen this weekend.

According to the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) Watchmen is “Rated R for strong graphic violence, sexuality, nudity and language.”

I do not get this rating at all. In my opinion, I thought this film should have been rated NC-17. This movie is not appropriate for children OR teenagers.

I had actually planned on taking my 17 yr old son to see this movie with me, but I wanted to go see it by myself 1st so that I could give it my full attention in order to do this review. I am extremely glad I did. My son is going to be disappointed, but he is not going to see this film.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not discouraging adults from seeing this. I enjoyed it very much, for varying reasons. It is just not appropriate for younger viewers, even in the accompaniment of their parents.

This is not the comic book movie version like “Spiderman” or “X-Men” it goes way beyond even “The Dark Knight”. If you saw ”300” then you are familiar with the graphic nature of director Zack Snyder’s work. “300” was the main reason he was sought after to direct this film, and ”Watchmen” falls right into that same raw category – except it takes it even farther.

• The violence is up close and personal in this movie, lots of hand to hand combat as well as people just blowing up. Yes it is more fictional, but it looks real – and it is right there.


• There is full frontal nudity of Dr. Manhattan (played by Billy Crudup). True, he is a glowing, blue superhero which takes a little bit of emphasis away from it – but there is just no disguising a dangling penis no matter what color it is.


• The sexuality is quite explicit, including an interrupted rape scene. This scene also involves the woman getting beaten before the man tries to rape her – nothing anyone wants their teenage daughter (or younger) seeing.


• As for language – I think the heroes curse more than the bad guys. Of course part of the movie is about what “superheroes” would actually be like in real life– so this part might be overlooked, if the F bomb didn’t get dropped every other scene (I may slip up every now and again, but I honestly don’t know anyone other than the contestants on “Top Chef” who cuss this much).

Watchmen is raw, it is emotional, it is intelligent; it is not juvenile.

If you are a parent, go see this movie –but get a sitter for the kids, they don’t need to watch this until they are old enough to vote.