Stardust
November 20, 2007
I saw the movie Stardust for the second time this weekend. It’s rated pg-13, which I think is a good rating for it because it could be scary for kids and death is one of the main themes, to more exact murder.
I really enjoyed the movie, but I found it interesting how most of the characters were in a race to kill someone else. I think the rating fit well because there was not anything that could have been edited out without completely ruining the plot.
Although one of the themes was death, it didn’t seem very violent because it was a fantasy. In real life people don’t cut a person’s heart out to eat it and gain eternal life. This fantasy element made it ok. I’ve found that with most fantasy movies violence is more acceptable because the movie is not realistic.
November 20, 2007 at 8:42 pm
I have not seen Stardust, but I have heard good things about it from several people. I think it is interesting what you said about how fantasy movies are giving a lower rating because the violence in them is not as realistic. This reminds me of all the Harry Potter films. There is plenty of death going in the the movies (and the last one especially will have a lot of it once it comes out), but because magical spells are what are doing the killing, I can see how it is given a lower rating because the murders are not very realistic. No matter how many times we point to someone and say “Avada Kedavra” nothing will happen. I would be interested to see if there is actual proof that fantasy movies are given lower ratings.
November 21, 2007 at 7:24 pm
I also saw Stardust and really liked it. I agree that the PG-13 rating was appropriate. Besides being violent in some parts, there were also some sexual references which may not be appropriate for children. But, these references were not strong enough to make the movie rated R. I also agree that in fantasy movies violence doesn’t seem quite as bad. For example, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is also rated PG-13. The non-human elements as well as the fantasy world make the violence and scary parts not seem quite as intense.
December 2, 2007 at 4:35 pm
I saw this movie, and I think that the death wasn’t even that bad. I would have given it a PG rating, but I guess there were lots of things that would probably scare little kids, so PG 13 is probably appropriate. Aren’t you happy I posted on your blog?
December 6, 2007 at 4:00 pm
I do not quite agree with making fantasy films have a lower rating because their violence is not realistic. Violence is violence. I have not seen this movie in particular and I’m sure it probably does not deserve an R rating, but I think it is appropriate for that kind of violence to be somewhere in between. I don’t know about you but I think that cutting someone’s heart out to eat it is much more disturbing than someone being shot. I think the real solution would be to add more ratings to the system.