I went to go watch "Deadpool" this Valentine’s Day, and I have to hand it to Hollywood. They made an awesome comic book movie that stays close to the source material and isn’t afraid to stray from it. I bring this up due to the fact that "Deadpool" is one of the few comic book movies that has an R rating, with the others being the "Punisher" movies. What makes Deadpool receive the R-rating though?

Well for starters, we have language, strong sexual content, graphic nudity, and other bits and pieces of material not age-appropriate for other comic book movies. I don’t say comic book “hero” movie either, as Deadpool is the opposite of that. He is an anti-hero in the sense that he does know the concept of justice, but it is self-fulfilled justice without a care for the world. I’m getting ahead of myself though, so a quick run-through of the story is necessary.

(Just so you know what you're getting into, here he is in the comics)

Deadpool is part of the Weapon X program within the comic universe, and after being given a cocktail of every mutagen within the franchise to cure his rampant cancer, he practically becomes immortal at the cost of looking like a shriveled scab. The torture of the program and the constant death drives him to insanity as he fights bad guys and good guys, while constantly breaking the fourth wall addressing the audience and winning battles in comedic ways. As he is supposed to be a joke character (Deadpool’s real name is Wade Wilson) based off the DC villain Slade Wilson, the notion of being a recurring character was far from everyone’s mind.

After the commercial failure and appearance of Deadpool in "X-men Origins: Wolverine," everyone wanted a remake or a retelling so as to give the Merc with a Mouth an actual mouth to speak with. I can assure everyone here and now that the Merc certainly has a mouth and says whatever he pleases to the audience throughout the film.

(Deadpool in Origins was literally a mute. Kinda contradicts his nickname.)

This brings me back to my initial point. This movie is rated R for several reasons and some people assume that because it is a super “hero” movie, it is family friendly. I am not one to judge on other’s child leaning behavior, but having kids below the age of 10 watching the film does not bode well on their psyche. Several people older than me left during the film due to the gratuitous amounts of sex and violence/gore in the film, and around a dozen kids were there with their families enjoying every second.

To claim that “there needs to be a PG-13 version so the kids can enjoy it” is a laughable claim as the movie is made 100 percent with its source material. Deadpool is not meant to be someone whom a child looks up to, but someone he needs not to be at all. The gore, violence and sex make the character and without that, he would be nothing. How these children will cope with an awkward sex scene that lasted for three minutes and then later the sound of gut-wrenching bone snapping evisceration is beyond me. The strip clubs with full frontal nudity and the image of Deadpool’s scabby and deformed genitals on their mind is something that they will have to dwell with.

(Go ahead and think dirty-minded because that is exactly the point)

I’m not going to argue anymore about this issue, but it’s along the same lines as buying a rated MATURE game for your child. They may say that everyone else is playing it, or that it’s just a game, but know that giving garbage to your child before they know that it is garbage will hurt them mentally.

I wasn’t allowed to play M rated games or even watch an R-rated film until I knew the differences and understood the reasoning behind such ratings. As my stepfather told me, “Garbage in will turn into garbage out.” Meaning that if a child is given something of a bad influence at a young age, they will spurt it out because they saw it as “acceptable” due to the film/game endorsing such behavior.

Bottom line is that the film is rated R for a reason. No matter how much begging, how much crying, how much hate you may get, this film is not meant for kids under the age of 15 or so.