[url]http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7540292.stm[/url]

[QUOTE][b]Film censor defends Batman rating[/b]

The BBFC has justified giving The Dark Knight a 12A certificate after getting more than 80 complaints about the Batman film's disturbing content.[/QUOTE]

Nothing major here, but, of course, there's a certain MP looking to push his agenda along for the ride:

[QUOTE]But Keith Vaz MP, who chairs the Home Affairs Select Committee, said the 12A certificate was too low [...]

He told [url=http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/film-and-tv/news/record-complaints-for-batman-film-over-rating-884233.html]The Independent[/url] newspaper: "The BBFC should realise there are scenes of gratuitous violence in The Dark Knight to which I certainly would not take my 11-year-old daughter. It should be a 15 certificate."[/QUOTE]

No, Vaz, it should be a 12A certificate, this suitably excludes your daughter, you innumerate imbecile.

Okay, if you want to suggest that the film should be a 15, then that's fine- just tell us that it's not appropriate for a 12 year old, instead. Alternatively: parent your own children, something the 12A allows you to do, but the 15 does not.

Either way, there's no smoke without fire, and there are whiffs of what could be considered foul play from the BBFC:

[QUOTE][BBFC spokeswoman Sue Clark] added that a 15 certificate would have denied an important part of the superhero's fan base the chance to see the film.

"Younger teenagers would not have been able to see it, and they are the very people who are going to love it.[/QUOTE]

Not the sort of thing that the BBFC need to have around at the current time, given the whole BBFC vs. PEGI fiasco that's going on.