“Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” has been classified as a 12A and is an action-adventure sci-fi film. Being a sequel and having already gained an audience, the producers have decided to stick within the same guidelines as the original, “Captain America: The First Avenger,” in order for this film to also be classified at a 12A too.
I think that this was done as a way to ensure that they did not limit their audiences. The first movie was a success with a gross of $176,636,816 with this classification, therefore by having another film with the same certificate means that they can use similar marketing strategies as they previously had done to attract the same mass audience as well as try to use new ones to target their wider audience.
The trailer is appropriate for this certificate as it does not emphasise on the violence, but instead focuses on the aesthetics by using lots of medium shots and quick edits to create a sense of speed and excitement for the audience to engage with the scenes without making them feel sick at the sight of too much blood and gore. Having watched the trailer the conventions reflect the same characteristics as those that appeared in the marvel comics. An example of this is when we see Captain America (CA) continuing to try and keep the public safe and out of trouble in the same way that his character does in the comics.
For those who watched the original film/have seen the trailer or have read or seen any of the comics they would expect to see a lot of guns and fighting scenes and violence throughout this movie. So the producer would have to take this into account as by having a film without the violent scenes and without the similar characteristics to the comic would mean that it wouldn’t be what the public are expecting and could have an affect on their gross.
Therefore the film would need to be classified at a 12A rating in order to be the correct certificate if the film intends on including lots of action and long fighting sequences as expected by its current and future target audience. The fact that lots of fight scenes will be apparent would mean that this would be a selling point for the young male audience as generally when boys are about 10 and upwards they like to regularly ‘play fight’ and redo fight scenes taken from shows such as ‘WWE’ and ‘Kim Possible’ so they tend to be the people who are most interested in this type of film.
Saying that I don’t think the moves shown in the trailer could be easily mimicked, though I doubt this would affect the imagination of the youthful males. I think this film has a wider audience and isn’t solely aimed at young boys. I would say that it is aimed at young girls too because of the attractive, Black Widow (BW) character who works with CA to save the day. I believe that their audiences are subjected between a link to how potential audiences can identify with the Blumler and Katz Theory.
For this I would say that the reason why this film also targets young girls is because BW is a character that young girls would look up to and want to be like because she appears as someone who is “cool” and “sexy. ” Whereas young boys would also want to come along to see the film because of her beauty too. A female audience of 19 + may be attracted to this film as it frames women in a different light compared to how women tend to be portrayed in action adventure movies, as the complete damsel in distress.
BW is played by Scarlett Johansson, who I would say is a significant choice as she is known for being a very attractive woman who when appearing in films never needs to be saved by anyone and this representation is attractive to both men and women, especially when she is wearing a tight catsuit. The character BW would also be used by females as a way to identify themselves with this character and also as a way to socially interact with others to escape from their own personal relationships and admire the romantic relationship between BW and CA.
This is a theory known as social and personal identity which is a key concept found by Blumler and Katz. More so, CA himself is a very attractive man who would appeal to females too – different from Iron Man and other Marvel characters as he has a clean cut and his characteristics are more moral and he appears more like a gentlemen. Furthermore the film would also be of interest to adults who grew up reading the Marvel comics as it would be as if there childhood is being brought to life.
After looking at the trailer (01:12-01:23) you notice that there is only moderate violence and the scenes are quick sharp action cuts as oppose to long bloody intense scenes which make it appropriate for this rating. For all these reasons I would say that classifying the film at a 12A is appropriate because it will be of interest of both male and female audiences of around 10 – 25.
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