This news isn't that great. Gary Oldman went on record a few months ago that he didn't see how the film could be rated anything but R. So, some serious cuts must have been made - hopefully under Nolan's supervision.

How is this good news? All the other Batman films were PG-13 too. I'm not saying it's bad news, but to get a true to the source "dark, gritty, sad and above all else violent" Batman film it would need an R rating.

Hey there Ryan:

I disagree. By todays ratings standards you have to be ultra violent or boarderline soft porn to get an "R" rating.

Look at it this way... Star Wars Attack of the Clones was PG. Granted, it's more fantasy, but there was a lot of violence in that flick. Jedi's getting killed, decapitating guys, lots of fighting and explosions... boom. That's PG.

X-Men 2 was PG even with Wolverine gutting soldiers and stabbing and slashing his way through the movie... hell, and they even swore (gasp!)

And I just ckecked... in my neck of the woods the first Batman film was PG.

Sin City is "R", and if you've read the graphic novel you can understand why. An "R" rating is true to the source material. However, I've read a lot of Batman... and I trully believe if you accurately translate the comic to the screen it's an unappolagetic PG13. Just my two cents.

Cheers

To clear things up, I'm in the USA. Here every single Batman movie has been rated PG-13, and so were both X-Men.

Concerning Attack of the Clones, the reason that got a PG is because most of (if not all) the violence shown on screen was inflicted upon a non-human, generally a CG droid or alien. It was more over the top violence that was meant to look fun rather than, well... violent.

I don't think that in todays ratings system you have to be ultra violent to get an R either, it just has to be semi-realistic. By that I mean humans bleed and bullets actually hit people.

Maybe I needed to clearify my earlier statement. You said in your main post Batman is "quite dark, gritty, sad and above all else violent" which I most certainly agree with that when at his best that's what Batman is. There are so many different styles of Batman though. There's the 40-50s Noir themed, Frank Miller balls to the wall noir, saturday morning cartoon style, Sherlock Holmes-esque, James Bond, 70s live action TV show based, etc. etc. If a movie was going to go with the dark Frank Miller Batman and be true to the style it would have to be R, because he's essentially Punisher with millions of dollars and a cape. That would never happen because in comic-book based movie world people don't bleed when they're seriously injured, they cough or faint.

I will admit that a PG13 could be obtained and still being based on Miller's Batman, but the only problem is it would be overstylized and rely heavily on the "creature of the night" theme.

This summer is indeed going to be a great time for the movies.

Cant wait!

I think I love the anticipation of summer movies more than the summer itself. Except for Fantastic Bore......Batman will rock. Takes me back to when the 1st one came out. Hope I have to stand in line!

I am also concerned about what may have been left on the cutting room floor to make this PG. On the other hand, there'll always be a 'director's cut' at some point. Amazing that in the same year both Batman and Vader will have their 'premiere' movies.

The movie will be awesome. I am glad it's PG13 because I can see it. The best super hero movie ever

hey guys.. just reporting on the pg-13/R disscussion. And for all of you guys pissed off about it "supposidly" being rated pg-13.. dont be.. not at least yet. The film's website still states that it is subject to classification or not yet rated. So this either means the website has inside sources which i highly dont believe. Nolan probably has two verions on his computer right now he is contimplating releasing. And by the looks of the trailer, source material, samuri background and sword fights this movie will have.. and even by the very gritty.. red "BATMAN BEGINS" title.. Nolan is proving that whatever rating.. this movie is for adults... at least for the 17 and up crowd..

It's a PG-13 rating, big deal. R is often for those films today that need to throw in extreme violence to get it, not Batman type violence. This is still an extremely dark film with some very dark material present. It's a true Batman film, if you doubt it will be one go watch Memento.