Violence in Entertainment: Does it have its place?

I was having a conversation with my buddy about Age of Extinction. He expressed his dislike and that was fine. However, I feel like we watched two completely different movies. So I strongly disagree with his view of the movie. We did agree that violence exists in this film and that he had a major issue with it. Which confused me for the fact that this is Transformers. Autobots defend the planet from the terrors of the universe. There will be violence. We eventually started talking about exploding tacos and the possibility of eating one. But it got me thinking, is violence necessary in entertainment?

Now before I tackle this subject, let me make this clear. I do not condone violence. Violence usually leads to more and even worse violence. I never find joy in seeing people get hurt. I always teach my girls to go the peaceful route and to step away from volatile situations.

Thought I should make that clear to all you humans. So.....let's focus on three things to consider when thinking of this topic.

Consider What You're Watching:
I'm an 80's kid. We grew up knowing names like Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Lundgren, Willis, even Van Damme. We all were pretty sure that with these names attached to movies, you're going to get a action film. Even Kindergarten Cop and Stop or My Mom will Shoot had violence in them.

So if you watch a movie called Kill, Kill, Kill, it's most likely going to be violent. I'm not exaggerating, most movies make it clear what kind of content is going to be in it. All you need to see is one commercial for a movie and you'll know what's in it.

Comic book, science fiction and fantasy films are not any different. Characters like Spiderman, Captain America, Legolas and many others are created to take on a variety of bad guys. Stopping them from harming others and their world. In order to do so, violence must take place. I get that.

Senseless Violence:
Now I hate movies or shows that are violent for the sake of being violent. That kind of stuff bugs me. I mean look, Spiderman kicks a mugger in the mouth to prevent him from robbing a person, that's understandable. However, he's not body checking every person he runs into for the sake of action. I remember watching a movie about a police force taking on mutant criminals. I was all about that. However, within the first 10 minutes, the main protagonist was cutting up her forearm with a box cutter. The horrible thing is, I have no idea why. And the scene went on for several minutes. I literally dipped out when all that was happening. It was pointless and stupid.

The Conscience of Others:
I have a friend that didn't like Lord of the Rings because it was extremely violent. However, they were okay with Star Wars: Episodes 1 & 2. Their argument was because they were fighting droids and that isn't so bad. You should have seen the face I made. But I had to consider the conscience of my friend. That was about as much violence they could take and that's okay. I'm sure there are people who don't like Avengers because it was violent and that's okay too. We never want to violate the conscience of others by forcing our own conscience on them. At the same time that person that can't deal with Transformers shouldn't judge those that can.

In the end, violence and other content will continue to exist in entertainment. It is our responsibility to filter through the mess to find something that is a level of reasonable and good entertainment. Okay, say you aren't fazed by the violence and will watch whatever. Maybe you can't even deal with Wolverine popping his claws in the first X-Men movie. Or you're right in the middle, either way it is all up to you. And it is not our place to judge others who do or don't roll with it.