Sigh. Can we keep comics stuff accessible to the people that they were originally invented for?
Times have changed, man. Ever since the 80s we've grown up with some really hard core takes on these characters. Suicide Squad is about a group of villains. It was a comic series created when comics made the transition from children fare to something that was taken a lot more seriously. Hell, Green Arrow's 'Snowbirds Don't Fly' would be
Rated R if adapted as would
many of the greatest stories from comics - Killing Joke was R and hardly anything was in it. I read that book when I was 11. The MPAA is screwed up.
Parents with older teenagers would take them -
do take them. I saw my first rated R film 'Air Force One' when I was 9 years old and my Dad for a couple years was strict about what I could and couldn't watch. Let's face facts here, how many guys haven't seen 'Die Hard' by the time they're at least 13? Most have. Betting a lot of parents are the same. Once you're 13 most rated R films are fair game as long as it wasn't 'American Pie' and etc. And before that - you could see many, just not as much. So "the audience they were intended for"
can see them, just very little kids (under 9 years old) wouldn't see all of them but they can see others. Just like with comics.
Saying no R or "comics are meant for kids" is so very 1930s. Comics, as kids have been raised to view, read, and take them in have come leaps and bounds. Kids
are reading comics that would be Rated R by the MPAA today. Modern kids, not 1930s kids.
Let movies be rated based on what the subject material is. Suicide Squad makes sense as being rated R. Batman should be PG-13, but hell - push the boundaries, give us 'Arkham: A Serious House on A Serious Earth' or close to it. Modern kids - read that. But Suicide Squad is an obvious R. Hell, there's even an interview with the cast of the film where they're
all behind this.