Last night I went to see the excellent War Of The Worlds with some friends. I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy it having heard various reviews ranging from ‘horrific’ to ‘spectacular’, but in the end I was won over quite quickly. Spielberg really puts an emotional human twist on the classic tale and the story of Cruise’s character Ray is engaging and faintly humorous from the beginning.

The problem for me however was not with the film itself, but with the 12A rating that it’s been given. From the outset, ‘War…’ is pretty relentless in documenting the systematic destruction of the human race in great detail. The scenes involve people being vapourized; buildings destroyed, families ripped apart, humans tortured, and desperate & violent crowds, but it is the emotional weight of Ray’s plight that makes it all so harrowing. Superb entertainment, but not the usual subject matter for under 12’s with or without parents.

In fact, the trailers were pretty worrying too. Both ‘The Cave’ and ‘The Skeleton Key’ trailers do their best to scare you witless. The suggestion of ghosts and monsters build up the suspense before the main movie has even started. I can’t imagine what a child would make of such images that I don’t enjoy viewing. As my friend Nick pointed out, “I’m all for introducing kids to a bit of gratuitous violence, but even I’d have second thoughts about taking them to that!”