Matt Reeves’ The Batman has been officially rated PG-13 – and some fans aren’t happy.
“The Batman deserves an R rating!” one Twitter user said, while another suggested that “nobody wants a Batman that isn't in his full glory: dark, gritty, mature, serious.”
Others made reference to Warner Bros. Studios’ obvious desire to open up screenings of The Batman to as many punters as possible, including children: “Whack [decision] but predictable,” one user wrote.
But devotees of The Caped Crusader need not fear. Robert Pattinson’s take on the iconic character most definitely won’t be hampered by a PG-13 rating – for several reasons.
Firstly, a PG-13 rating (as awarded by the US board of classification, the MPAA) still permits “strong violent and disturbing content, drug content, strong language and some suggestive material” in a movie.
The Batman is therefore likely to maintain the gritty tone established by its trailers so far . It won’t be bloody – higher age ratings are needed for the red stuff – but the ground-and-pound fighting style of Pattinson’s Batman looks set to ensure Reeves’ vision of Gotham lives up to its billing as the darkest yet.
Secondly – and perhaps most importantly – The Batman is the eighth successive standalone Batman movie to receive a PG-13 rating in the US. Yes, really. That means Tim Burton’s Batman and Batman Returns, Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, and Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises all bore the same certificate.
Remember Scarecrow’s frightening face, the Joker’s hostage-taking plots, Harvey Dent’s barbecued face and Bane’s very public execution of a nuclear physicist? All PG-13.
A history of violence
Director Matt Reeves, in particular, is also known for pushing the boundaries of the PG-13 rating to the absolute limit.
Both Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and War for the Planet of the Apes, along with invasion thriller Cloverfield, are often extremely dark in tone, each containing scenes that don’t exactly scream child-friendly.
Those worried that The Batman will be a sanitized, thrill-free adventure through Gotham's underbelly, then, have nothing to fear. In 2022, a PG-13 rating is less a synonym for ball pit entertainment and more an opportunity for Reeves and co. to share their take on the Batman legend with as large an audience as possible.
Rest assured, Robert Pattinson's Dark Knight will be getting his hands dirty when the movie releases in theaters on March 4 – there just won’t be any blood to clean up.
UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships 2022 live stream: how to watch cycling online from anywhere, elite men's race
The 2022 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships sees the competition take place outside Europe for only the second time in the event's 72-year history. Prepare for some mud-spattered action as the world's best riders take on the gradients of Fayetteville, Arkansas, this weekend. Join us for a spin as we explain how to get a 2022 Cyclo-cross World Championships live stream and watch cycling online from anywhere.
Signalling the end of what has been a dramatic 2021-22 cyclo-cross season, this year's event brings to an end a nine year wait for the World Championships to return to the United States.
As ever, the weekend sees six events take place, with the main attractions the women's elite race on Saturday and the men's elite event on Sunday.
British favourite Tom Pidcock, Belgian star Eli Iserbyt, and Dutch duo Lucinda Brand and Marianne Vos, will be among the stars set to battle it out for a coveted rainbow jersey on what's expected to be a fast Northwest Arkansas track.
It's a jam-packed schedule, so read on for everything you need to know to watch a 2022 Cyclo-cross World Championships live stream from anywhere.
How to watch a FREE UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships live stream online
The official UCI YouTube channel and on the UCI official Facebook page are both set to stream all the action for FREE , however these broadcasts are set to be geo-blocked in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US due to licensing agreements.
If you fancy your cycling coverage with some European flavour, FREE UCI Track World Championships coverage is also available via VRT in Belgium and Rai in Italy .
And if you're from any of the countries listed above but you're abroad right now, don't worry about missing out on that free coverage - all you need to do is download a VPN to re-connect to your home streaming coverage.
How to watch UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships 2022 from outside your country
If you're keen to watch the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships but you're away from home and the coverage is geo-blocked, then you could always use a VPN to access it (assuming you're not breaching any broadcaster T&Cs, of course). You may be surprised how simple it is to do.
Use a VPN to get a UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships live stream from anywhere
How to use a VPN
Using a VPN is as easy as one-two-three...
1. Download and install a VPN - as we say, our top choice is ExpressVPN
2. Connect to the appropriate server location - open the VPN app, hit 'choose location' and select the appropriate location.
3. Go to the broadcaster's stream - head to your home broadcaster's site or app and watch as if you were at home - so that might be UCI YouTube channel , UCI official Facebook page , VRT and Rai .
2022 Cyclo-cross World Championships schedule
Friday, January 28
Saturday, January 29
Sunday, January 30
How to live stream UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in the UK
How to watch UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships 2022: US cycling live stream details
How to watch UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships 2022: live stream cycling FREE in Australia
How to watch 2022 Cyclo-cross World Championships : live stream cycling in Canada
How to watch 2022 Cyclo-cross World Championships: live stream cycling in New Zealand
The Book of Boba Fett episode 2: it’s already time to rein in the flashbacks
Spoilers for The Book of Boba Fett follow.
Two weeks into its run, The Book of Boba Fett is already having an identity crisis – and it has little to do with the not-a-bounty hunter’s efforts to reinvent himself as Tatooine’s number one crime boss.
With less than a third of ’The Tribes of Tatooine’ devoted to Boba’s present, an obsession with exploring the character’s backstory in minute detail is starting to unbalance the series. If you were feeling charitable, you could argue the extensive flashback sequence is a deliberate nod to The Godfather Part II – the crime saga is a major influence on The Mandalorian spin-off series, after all – but that would mean ignoring a fundamental difference.
Because, unlike this episode, Francis Ford Coppola’s gangster classic never lost sight of the fact that the story of the younger Vito Corleone was the support act rather than the main event. And that's a shame, because the episode’s ‘present day’-set opening act is electrifyingly brilliant and everything we’d hoped for from the latest Star Wars Disney Plus show.
It kicks off more or less where episode 1 left off last week, with Fett’s enforcer, aka Fennec Shand, escorting a highly trained ‘Order of the Night Wind’ assassin (still alive, as ordered) back to Jabba’s Palace, which is surely due a ‘Boba’s Palace’ rebrand in the near future.
Her return kickstarts a 14-minute detective story that takes Fett on a tour of key Mos Espa locations as he tries to work out who ordered the attempt on his life. Intimidation techniques, such as interrogation by knife point and that refreshingly familiar slide into a (now vacant) Rancor pit, prove remarkably effective, and suggest that – despite Fett’s claims to the contrary – he intends to rule by fear as much as respect.
With and without the famous Mandalorian helmet, Temuera Morrison proves that Fett doesn’t need fancy gadgets to be top dog. His performance in the episode’s first act is a tour de force, as he effortlessly conveys a character in total control of his situation – whether he’s meeting the mayor of Mos Espa, the returning Madam Garsa, or The Twins – a pair of Hutts who believe that cousin Jabba’s criminal empire is rightfully theirs. Fett may claim he’s left his bounty hunting days behind him, but it seems that others will take more convincing…
The brief cameo from The Twins is possibly the standout moment of the episode, although the inclusion of Black Krrsantan might also foreshadow the Wookiee bounty hunter as a potential adversary in Obi-Wan Kenobi's upcoming TV show , too. Arriving in town carried by an army of servants, The Twins make a hell of an entrance, but it’s the subtle, background touches that stand out most – the female Twin demurely waving a fan, the sight of a man buckling under the Hutts’ combined weight, or the threateningly low-key “sleep lightly, bounty hunter” whispered on their departure.
Unfortunately, just as the episode should be on its way to a top-tier crescendo, Boba’s submerged in his bacta tank once again, and we’re back with the Sand People on the Dune Sea. It’s a flashback that continues until the end credits, and – in an episode 14 minutes longer than its predecessor – it proves to be something of a momentum-sapping slog.
It’s also a symptom of modern Star Wars’ frustrating need to fill as many gaps in canon as it can. George Lucas’s famous galaxy wasn’t always that way, of course, and the episode’s earlier references to the “Death Pits of Duur” and a “gumpta on Mustafar” hark back to the days when bounty hunters on Ord Mantell, or completing the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs, didn’t need an explanation. These are the sort of casual, unexplained remarks that fire a fan’s imagination as much as finding out how Fett went from Sarlacc snack to hanging out with Mando and Baby Yoda.
But, by prioritizing backstory over all else, ‘The Tribes of Tatooine’ falls into the trap that’s befallen so many prequels into the past: obsessing over a story whose conclusion is already in the public domain.
That said, this episode does an important job reinventing the Tusken Raiders, a species that hasn’t always been treated kindly by the franchise – in Episode IV: A New Hope, they were simply weird creatures to be avoided. Then, Episode II: Attack of the Clones turned them into “vicious, mindless monsters” waiting to be slaughtered by Anakin Skywalker early on his journey to the Dark Side.
‘The Tribes of Tatooine’ continues a redemption arc started in The Mandalorian episode ‘The Gunslinger’, though, by providing a welcome glimpse of the misunderstood Sand People and their culture. At times, this Tusken Raider storyline feels like a clunky mix between Dances with Wolves, Dune, and a slapstick driving school for Sand People.
But respect for their ways ultimately proves to be paramount, most notably in Fett’s powerful, politically relevant remarks about indigenous people and their claim on ancestral lands. Besides, the beautiful scene where Fett fashions his gaffi stick from the log he finds on a lizard-induced vision quest almost justifies the leisurely pace of what comes before – almost, but not quite.
Our verdict
Effectively a very long-winded origin story for Boba Fett’s Tusken Raider robes and gaffi stick, ‘The Tribes of Tatooine’ gets bogged down in its obsession with the lead character’s past. It’s fantastic as a nostalgia-fest, of course – the numerous Star Wars Easter Eggs never disappoint – but this shouldn’t come at the expense of pushing the title character’s story forward.
Another priority for the series should be finding something meaningful for Fennec Shand to do. Right now, Boba Fett’s right-hand woman is struggling to justify her position at second on the bill and, given she's shone in the brief scenes she's been a part of, providing Shand with more screen time is something that we'll hopefully see in future episodes.
Two episodes in, The Book of Boba Fett has already done enough to show that the criminal underworld of Mos Espa is where the more compelling stories are to be found – even when they’re competing with a fun, Western-tinged train heist. Now it’s time the series turned its attentions to pushing ahead with its gangster action, and maybe establishing a Big Bad – possibly someone even bigger than The Twins.
Force facts
New episodes of The Book of Boba Fett debut on Disney Plus every Wednesday.