Comic book movies do not need to be R-rated to be good, and those of us that love them have to accept that. Just because Christopher Nolan directed three of the best superhero movies of all time withThe Dark Knight Trilogydoes not mean that every single comic book movie has to be that dark and grounded. What is often forgotten is that the Sam RaimiSpider-Man Trilogywas intensely silly and sincere, which is what makes those movies great.
Sincerity is okay and doesn’t always have to be undercut by a quip every five minutes, which is the biggest problem that the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has today, however, there have been several comic book movies over the years that could have been helped by going for an R-rating. Some of these might have been even better had they gotten an R-rating. A more violent and grounded tone is no guarantee of a great comic book movie but depending on the movie it could have been a more compelling take than the version that we received.
The Flash (2023)
Putting aside Ezra Miller’s trouble with the law over the last few years, they do give a surprisingly sensitive performance inThe Flashthat is much more solid than people are willing to give it credit for. With that being said, the movie is loosely based on Geoff John and Andy Kubert’sFlashpointrun, which is a dark and deeply violent run which is completely antithetical to the movie that we got this year. In the comic, after Barry Allen changes the timeline by saving his mother from being killed, everything changes. Bruce Wayne is the one who gets killed in the alleyway, and his father becomes a much more violent version of The Batman, and in her grief, his mother becomes the Joker.
The Amazonians, led by Wonder Woman, are at war with the Atlantiansled by Aquaman, and they cause catastrophic levels of death and destruction in their wake. Understandably, Andy Muschietti’s version of this movie only has so much time to be able to touch on everything that happens in the comic, however, it would have been very cool to see a live-action movie that stuck much closer to the beloved source material that was more grim and despondent.
Morbius (2022)
It’s time once again for your yearly check-up with the living vampire, Dr. Michael Morbius, “a new Marvel legend” that everyone definitely remembers was released on April 1st that was unfortunately not an April Fools' joke.Morbiuswas a miscalculation on everyone’s part that making a 105-minute movie about a D-list Spider-Man villain that no one has ever heard of was going to be a huge financial success. It was delayed for a couple of years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so general audiences had forgotten about it, and they were trying to tie the Sony Marvel movies in with the Disney Marvel movies.
They decided to bring in Michael Keaton from theTom HollandSpider-Manmoviesand introduce multiverses, which got too complicated and made the movie overstuffed. What would have helped this movie a lot is if it was paired down, didn’t try so hard to make the audience sympathize with a character that barely had an origin story to begin with, and was much more violent. Though these ideas may not have fixed the movie entirely, it would have at least been different from the movies that came before it, therefore making it much more interesting. This movie would have been so much more fun if we could have watched Jared Leto decapitating bad guys left and right,The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn-Part 2style, but R-rated.
David Ayer’s infamously detested and re-editedSuicide Squadis a movie that definitely would have benefited from an R-rating. The final product that was released to the public is a revision of a revision of a revision. David Ayer submitted his version of the movie, which was much more linear and straightforward. Warner Bros. thought it was too dark and “militaristic” and it didn’t test well so they re-edited it to make it lighter, which also didn’t test well at early screenings. to rectify this Warner Bros, decided to do extensive re-shoots to make a generally light movie and cost as much as an extra $22 million on their already pretty large budget which is unheard of. An original cut of the movie would be nice to see, and an R-rating would make it more interesting, not necessarily better.
Being that theSuicide Squadcomics were pretty dark already, an R-rating would have made the tone much closer to the source material and less of a tonal mess than what was released to the public all of those years ago.
Related:David Ayer Shares New Photo of Jared Leto’s Joker from Suicide Squad
The Batman (2022)
Matt Reeves’ masterpiece that isThe Batmanis a movie that should not be altered at all, however, it is rather fun to imagine a parallel universe in which it was an Elseworld story. This movie is already so in control of its own tone, walking a tightrope of being an extreme comic book movie without leaning too far into being silly and not leaning too far into the bleak Zack Snyder version of these characters that so many DC fans want. A non-canon movie in which a darker Batman is brutally beating up criminals and possibly killing them would have been an interesting version of the character.
This could be a fun version of the DCEU in that different directors could come in and direct a one-off movie that would be entirely their own vision of these characters that truly would set them apart from the MCU. A Denis Villeneuve-directedKingdom Comeor an Ari AsterConstantinemovie are just a few wild ideas that will definitely never happen, but are fun to think about and would be a great way to differentiate themselves from the very uniform MCU.
Hellboy (2004)
Back when comic book movies didn’t have to be about superheroes or have a $300 million budget, Guillermo del Toro’sHellboywas unlike anything that had been made at the time. Del Toro, being a huge comic book fan and just having finished making the masterpiece that isBlade II, wanted to make another comic book movie, which ended up beingHellboy. He was a huge fan of the Dark Horse Comics character of the same name and had been shopping it around Hollywood for a while before he was able to get it made, starring his favorite actor Ron Perlman.
Though this movie is already a very well-made, underrated and oft-forgotten del Toro movie, it would have been interesting to see a much more violent version. Of course, we did get the R-rated version in 2019 starring David Harbour, but that movie was trying so hard to set itself apart from this version that it sacrificed a compelling story for vulgarity and gratuitous violence. Knowingdel Toro’s other works such as Pan’s Labyrinth, he found a way to balance these tones to make what could have been an early comic book movie as good as the legendaryBlade II.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
Joe and Anthony Russo’s first foray into the Marvel Cinematic Universe after having found great success in their directing of several episodes of one of the greatest TV shows of all time,Community.Captain America: The Winter Soldierwas a darker entry for the MCU, back when they tried to take risks and have their movies have a distinct look from one another. Had Disney wanted to make a spy thriller starring Captain America that really would have set them apart from everyone else, they could have a darker and more violent take on the movie.
Though the movie is alreadyone of the best in the franchisewith some of the best hand-to-hand combat choreography, a little bit of blood couldn’t have hurt. What sets this movie apart from the other entries in the franchise is that it is a very quiet and low-key action thriller, up until the third act of the movie, where Captain America and Black Widow have to stop Hydra from blowing up the entire eastern seaboard. Similar toThe Batmanand the DCEU, it is fun to imagine a world in which every MCU movie had been directed by different auteurs who each had their own take on each story.
Venom (2018)
Ruben Fleischer’sVenomis a movie that was originally meant to be R-rated, but due to studio interference and an effort to tie the movie into the already existing MCUSpider-Manfranchise, Sony decided to make it PG-13. Venom is an absolute fan favorite and is the bizarro version of Spider-Man in the source material, and was always more violent than any of the other characters in the comics. First attaching itself to Peter Parker and having no luck there, the symbiote eventually finds itself attached to Eddie Brock.
Brock is portrayed in this movie by the great Tom Hardy, who gives an unhinged performance as a “hard-hitting” journalist who thinks he is going mad due to him being the only one who can hear the voice of Venom in his head. Venom is a tad more violent than the other movies in the MCU, however, there is almost no blood, and they try their hardest to cut around any gratuitous violence. Though Venom does have its moments, Sony’s efforts to soften it to fit into the MCU don’t help it, and definitely deserved an R-rating.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
The scatterbrained and at times bumblingX-Men Origins: Wolverineis an infamous Fox Marvel movie before they were bought out by Disney. Though this movie is remembered for it introducing the world to Ryan Reynolds as the “merc with a mouth” Deadpool, it is also remembered for completely mishandling not only that character but a lot of others. Removing Deadpool’s mouth, the thing that he is most famous for, and throwing in Gambit for no reason other than to introduce him, the movie flounders for 107 minutes. However, the movie does open with a montage of James Howlett (Wolverine) and his brother Victor Creed (Sabertooth) fighting in every war in the late 19th and 20th centuries due to their decelerated aging and rapid healing abilities.
This is a fascinating way to open a movie with two people who are essentially immortals, could have been a wholly original take on an iconic comic book character and would have been more fascinating had it been a bloody brutal take on the character. Instead, it ended up being a bloated summer blockbuster and is notoriously one of the worst superhero movies in the 21st century.
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Jonah Hex (2010)
A movie that everyone definitely remembers exists isJonah Hex, starringJosh Brolin as the titular characterbefore he became the mad titan Thanos in the MCU and Cable inDeadpool 2. Jonah Hex in DC Comics is a notorious bounty hunter who, despite being blind in one eye due to half of his face being horribly burned, is a crack shot with almost supernatural speed and could gun down multiple men before they can even get their guns out. Though Hex is a killer, he still has a moral code to only kill the guilty, as well as to protect and avenge the innocent. The movie that we got was only PG-13 and was about a character that no one had ever heard of, which would explain why this movie was an absolute box office bomb.
If Warner Bros. had leaned into the violence of the character and advertised his connection to DC, this might have done better. Also, Warner Bros. was clearly too scared to lean into how horribly scarred his face is in the comics that probably would have gotten people more interested, but Brolin probably didn’t want to put on all of those prosthetics every day in order to film, which is understandable. Regardless, it would have been a very fun Western had it been as violent as something like3:10 to YumaorDjango Unchained.
Daredevil (2003)
After the amazing financial and critical success of Sam Raimi’sSpider-Manin 2002, every major studio was trying to recapture that magic that it had, andDaredevilis one of many that definitely could not crack it.Daredevil, except for the exceptional Colin Farrell, is a movie full of actors who clearly had no idea how to play in these kinds of movies, as it was the very early days of superhero movies.Farrell gives a borderline psychotic performanceas the Daredevil villain Bullseye, which is utterly fascinating in an otherwise pretty dull movie. Had this movie been much more similar to the Frank Miller version of the character, it would have been much more grounded, violent, and ahead of the curve in adapting his work.
Later movies found great success with adapting Miller’s work that were much closer to the source material, like Zack Snyder’s300orSin City, that Miller had directed himself alongside Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. Though the movie is heavily based on the visual style of Joe Quesada’sGuardian Devilseries, in a post 9/11 America people seemed to want a more grounded and sincere take on superheroes that this movie certainly did not have.
