Not suitable under 13, parental guidance to 15 (Violence and scary scenes)
This topic contains:
Children under 13 | Not suitable due to violence and scary scenes |
Children aged 13 to 14 | Parental guidance recommended due to violence |
Children aged 15 and over | OK for this age group |
This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.
Name of movie: | Captain America: The Winter Soldier |
Classification: | M |
Consumer advice lines: | Mild themes, action violence, sexual references and coarse language |
Length: | 136 minutes |
This review of the movie contains the following information:
The film begins with S.H.I.E.L.D. agents Captain America (Chris Evans), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and a host of S.H.I.E.L.D commandos storming a hijacked ship at sea to rescue a group of hostages from modern day pirates. While Captain America rescues the hostages, Black Widow manages to infiltrate the ship’s computer system and recover data suggesting that there might be some rotten apples within the S.H.I.E.L.D. organisation. Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. brings his concerns about this to the Secretary of the World Security Council, Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford). However, Nick is then attacked and killed by the world’s most notorious assassin, The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), an ex Russian black-ops cyborg.
Captain America is next to be targeted by the Winter Soldier. He is branded a rogue agent and forced to fight against the very S.H.I.E.L.D. agents with whom he once worked. In a bid to uncover those responsible for Nick Fury’s assassination, Captain America teams up with Black Widow and a new ally, The Falcon (Anthony Mackie). They uncover a sinister organisation out of the past, bent on overthrowing S.H.I.E.L.D. and ruling the world.
Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.
Super heroes; assassins; good verses evil
Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.
Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.
The film contains intense action violence, including shooting, stabbings, strangling and punching, car chases and explosions throughout. Examples include:
Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.
In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:
Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.
Children in this age group are also likely to be disturbed by the above-mentioned violence and scary characters.
Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.
Children in this age group are also likely to be disturbed by some of the above-mentioned scenes.
Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.
Younger children in this age group may also be disturbed by some of the above-mentioned scenes
None of concern in the film, but plenty of associated Marvel Comics merchandise.
The film contains occasional low-level sexual references including:
There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:
There is some use of substances in this movie, including:
The film contains occasional low-level coarse language. Examples include:
Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the second instalment in the Marvel Captain America series, is a fantasy action film targeting adolescent males, adults who enjoy super hero films and fans of Marvel Comics. It is darker than many similar films and seems to contain more violent scenes than necessary for the plot. It therefore deserves the M rating, and is not recommended for under thirteen year olds. Parental guidance is recommended for slightly older teens
The main messages from this movie are:
Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include friendship and trust – both of which are seen as having to be earned.
Tip: Leave out the first A, An or The
Selecting an age will provide a list of movies with content suitable for this age group. Children may also enjoy movies selected via a lower age.
Content is age appropriate for children this age
Some content may not be appropriate for children this age. Parental guidance recommended
Content is not age appropriate for children this age
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