Every movie that’s released has to be approved for rating by the various different territories that it releases in, for the US that’s the MPAA, but the decisions they make have very little factor on how a film is rated elsewhere. In the UK we have the British Board of Film Classification the (BBFC) and they are traditionally a little pickier than their American cousins.
Cue Warner Bros. having to remove a bit of detail from a scene in the upcoming Aquaman in order to hit the target audience they were looking for in the UK. Aquaman is rated as PG-13 in the US, but the UK equivalent is 12A and this 12A is exactly what WB wanted for Aquaman. As reported by CBR, unfortunately for them it was made clear by the BBFC that the film was currently sitting at 15 which means no one under the age of 15 is permitted to see the movie, not ideal for a comic book movie.
As a result, Aquaman has had to cut a small amount of “bloody detail” from a scene in order to hit that 12A category in the UK, although this must be small as the runtime is listed as the same in both territories.
This is not the first time the UK has been forced to have slightly altered versions of movies. One of the most famous I recall was Star Wars: Attack of the Clones and the offending scene was a simple shot of Jango Fett head-butting Obi-Wan Kenobi on Kamino. The BBFC decided that as Jango was wearing a helmet during the headbutt it was inappropriate for younger audiences.
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Frankly, as a UK resident, I find the BBFC a joke of an organization that seems to be a dinosaur of another time. Unless you think seeing some blood in an Aquaman movie will lead you into a life as a serial killer then I don’t get the fuss. Of course, I have no idea what the scene may involve, but with all the sharks and sea monsters on show, I wouldn’t be against seeing a bit of chomping as it were.
I was 4 when I first watched Jaws and it changed my life in many ways, I developed a respect for the animal kingdom and a love of all things shark. I cried at the end when the shark got killed because “it wasn’t the shark’s fault!” As far as the BBFC are concerned this film should have been locked away until I was 18 years old. Yep, Jaws still retained an 18 (which is R rated in the US) certificate in the UK for a long time. So it’s a boo and a hiss from me in the direction of my Nation’s moral overlords.
Any other UK residents feel mugged off again by the BBFC with this latest censorship? Express your LRM rights to sound off in the usual place below.
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SOURCE: CBR
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