Yeah, that is what bugs me about some people. It's okay to show a city block being destroyed but not to show the amount of pain caused by a single person dying?
At least old R rated action films and movies like Dredd show the impact and horror of taking a life. They also show that the person who takes the life, even if he is a hero pays a price for doing it. I think the title song for Casino Royal perfect sums up what an action movie's perspective on violence should be.
It's like when in movies now they try to have Nazis without calling them Nazis or showing the full horror of what they did, you are white washing the facts and making the Nazis not look so bad. I mean in the Captain American movie the argument seemed to be that the Nazis were the lesser of two evils. When Red Skull breaks away from the Nazis it is played as if a really bad thing is happening and the Nazis were in fact holding him back from some of his evil plans. Now maybe that was not the intent of the film makers but that is how it played because the evil of the Nazis was never shown and they were opposed to redskull the villain of the film, so I am afraid some kids will walk away with the impression that the Nazis were not so bad. it's the same thing with violence.
I know alot of people will dispute me on this but it's why I think Man of Steel has the moral high ground over the Avengers. In both films a city is destroyed in the climax but in Man of Steel the impact is shown while in the Avengers it is just shown as a fun little adventure and the heroes are laughing and making jokes at the end. In the Avengers any people who are in danger are saved and we don't see anything thing from their perspective. Also killing hundreds of aliens who don't even have names leaves no impact on the heroes and they just make jokes at the end of it.
In Man of steel there are three characters on the ground and we see things from their perspective. Yes, they live in the end but it is by pure chance and in their faces we see that that know they are the lucky ones. It also goes to great lengths to show that when a city becomes ground zero for a war even if it is being fought by someone as good as Superman there is no way to avoid the deaths of civilians and some times there is no way to avoid the fight so in that way it brings the full horror of war out in the open to be seen and it shows that even when you are the good guy you still can not save everyone and your actions can still have bad outcomes. Then at the end Superman falls apart as the full impact of what has happened hits him, including the killing of Zod and his followers. Yes it was the right thing to do and there was no other option but it still leaves Superman with a scare and the impact the battle had on the people on the ground is shown.
To me MOS approach to violence and urban warfare is much better then The Avengers'. I think that is the approach most action movies should take. Show the impact since it draws us into the story and it sends a better message, if that means getting an R rating then so be it. I don't think the R rating will always happen since as I said I think Man of Steel got the point across with a PG13, still why it gets a PG13 and something like Death Wish where the hero vomits after the first time he attacks a guy gets an r rating is beyond me.
The MPAA is mess up and this is why I don't really pay attention to film ratings any more.