Whats the youngest aged child you'd take to see the Davinci Code?

[Minnie824]

I know its rated PG13, but whats the youngest aged child you'd take to see the Davinci Code? Not just because of some of the violence, but also, what age do you think they'd be interested in it and understand as well? My oldest is 4, so I'm not really sure. My friend's husband took their DD to see it over the weekend though, and DH & I thought she was too young. I'll post her age after I see some responses.



Adding for clarification....
I posted this in a response further down, but I know not everyone reads every post, so I wanted to clarify here...
Oh My GOSH!!! I would NEVER EVER bring my 4 year old to see this movie. I guess I wasn't clear. DH & I saw it ALONE over the weekend. My friend's husband brought their DD12 to see it....thats what I was wondering about. To me and DH, we thought 12 was too young to see it, and would not be able to follow it. By saying my oldest was 4, I meant that I'm not really familiar w/12 year olds, and whether they could follow it or not. Honestly, we wouldn't have let our DDs see it if they were 12 probably.

 

[MsLeFever]

If the child was advanced enough to have read and enjoyed the book, I would take them to the movie.

 

[Christine]

I would say about 10 or 11.

 

[Bearvet]

We took DS11 and there were times I wondered if we should have done so. DH, myself, DS17 and DS13 had all read the book so we planned to go to the movie all together. Since DS11 would also go with us, he started to read the book and finished about 3/4 of it before we saw the movie. It's pretty complicated so we felt he'd be able to better follow the movie if he read the book, which in fact happened. BTW he really liked the movie.

The scenes where Silas is self-flagellating are pretty intense and I had a hard time watching. However, DS11 having 2 older brothers has probably seen much worse in movies and it didn't seem to bother him too much. I'm still surprised it was rated PG-13 I guess.

DS11 is very mature for his age and could follow the plot, but I did see him yawning at times. I certainly wouldn't take a younger child and also feel that some 11 year olds wouldn't enjoy it. It's also a very long movie and younger children could be disruptive to the rest of the audience. JMHO.

 

[tar heel]

We took my son who will be 12 in less than a month. He followed it pretty well, had questions about what Silas was doing to himself and totally missed the brief ritualistic sex scene. We had discussed some of the plot and how it was a made-up story before we went, though. My DS isn't interested in it enough to want to read the book.

We're selective about which PG13 movies we take him to. We do things like Lord of the Rings, which he's read, and the Batman movies, for example. I'm not going to take him to a sex-oriented movie. I have fewer problems with fantasy violence (i.e. LOTR) then action movies with a lot of gore. We also don't take him to horror movies.

 

[janette]

My 11yo DD had asked to go but I wasn't sure until I knew of the PG13 rating. With that I know they had to tone down the sexual & violence that could have been more than I'd let her see. She's very interested in Art history etc and wants to see the setting more than the story.

 

[golfgal]

We took our kids last night, the twins are 11 and DS13. I wouldn't take a child much younger then 11 (5th grade). Some of the scenes are pretty intense. DD11 said it was pretty scary at times. I could see that this movie could almost be rated R. If they had spend more then 5 seconds on the ritualistic sex scene I think it would have been rated R.

There was a girl at the theater that looked to be about 9 and she was VERY upset after the movie. I think that is too young.

 

[LindsayDunn228]

I know its rated PG13, but whats the youngest aged child you'd take to see the Davinci Code? Not just because of some of the violence, but also, what age do you think they'd be interested in it and understand as well? My oldest is 4, so I'm not really sure. My friend's husband took their DD to see it over the weekend though, and DH & I thought she was too young. I'll post her age after I see some responses.

I'm not flaming you, but do you honestly think a 4-year-old would be able to understand and follow the storyline??

 

[noodleknitter]

edited after reading clarification!

I would think it might be ok for a kid who has been exposed to a lot of dark, intense films. Not so good for others.

 

[Minnie824]

I'm not flaming you, but do you honestly think a 4-year-old would be able to understand and follow the storyline??

Oh My GOSH!!! I would NEVER EVER bring my 4 year old to see this movie. I guess I wasn't clear. DH & I saw it ALONE over the weekend. My friend's husband brought their DD12 to see it....thats what I was wondering about. To me and DH, we thought 12 was too young to see it, and would not be able to follow it. By saying my oldest was 4, I meant that I'm not really familiar w/12 year olds, and whether they could follow it or not. Honestly, we wouldn't have let our DDs see it if they were 12 probably.

 

[pearlieq]

I thought it was pretty gory, and parts of it even made my DH jump out of his skin!

I would start considering it at around age 12, but it would really depend on the child. Could they handle seeing self-flaggelation, other violence, and some pretty scary characters? Would they be able to follow a fairly complex plotline and sit through 2 1/2 hours without much levity?

 

[Tigger&Belle]

Oh My GOSH!!! I would NEVER EVER bring my 4 year old to see this movie. I guess I wasn't clear. DH & I saw it ALONE over the weekend. My friend's husband brought their DD12 to see it....thats what I was wondering about. To me and DH, we thought 12 was too young to see it, and would not be able to follow it. By saying my oldest was 4, I meant that I'm not really familiar w/12 year olds, and whether they could follow it or not. Honestly, we wouldn't have let our DDs see it if they were 12 probably.

Phew, I'm relieved.

I haven't seen the movie or read the book, but I can imagine taking my 12yo. But I have no plans to go--maybe rent the DVD when it comes out and I will hopefully have read the book by then.

 

[damo]

There are a few scenes that really turned my stomach. Other than that, it is just long. I would say about 11 or 12 years old would probably be the earliest and even then it would depend on how they can handle the self mutilation scenes.

 

[LindsayDunn228]

Oh My GOSH!!! I would NEVER EVER bring my 4 year old to see this movie. I guess I wasn't clear. DH & I saw it ALONE over the weekend. My friend's husband brought their DD12 to see it....thats what I was wondering about. To me and DH, we thought 12 was too young to see it, and would not be able to follow it. By saying my oldest was 4, I meant that I'm not really familiar w/12 year olds, and whether they could follow it or not. Honestly, we wouldn't have let our DDs see it if they were 12 probably.

Oh thank goodness!! I was really wondering, "Is she for real?" Thanks for the clarification

 

[ashjohnson80]

I would just wonder if a child could understand it. My DH saw it with me and some of our friends last night and didn't "get it" at all.

 

[makinorlando]

My DD9 and I just returned from the DaVinci Code. When I saw the preview during a movie we saw together I said it was something I wanted to see. She said it looked like it would be good and wanted to go to. She has asked ever since about going with me. I gave her a little synopsis of the book prior to going, and told that basically they were looking for clues in search of Mary Magdalene.

DD did fine, she was not grossed out by anything (this child always wanted to watch CSI with me in it's first season - she was three!). She is not easily grossed out or frightened by things on TV or movies.

She sat quietly through the movie and continually said it was good, and that although she got lost a couple times she thought she understood! If she had really been bored, or not getting any of it, she would have asked to leave!

I explained the scene with Silas self-flagellating, and she said it looked like he did it alot because of his back, and she mentioned that if her cousin Tyler were there he would have made fun of the naked butt.

I also felt the ritualistic sex scene was such a flash that she didn't catch it at all!

I am glad I saw the movie, but I enjoyed the suspense in reading the book much much more.

 

[Aimeedyan]

I wouldn't take a middle schooler, personally. I just don't see a need for them to see things like that, whether they read it or not.

Following our viewing on Sunday, several church members mentioned that they were glad they left their 6-7-8 graders at home. High schoolers went but the church members and our pastor that saw it earlier in the weekend really discouraged those younger than 9th grade from attending.

I was happy to see that there was no one younger than high school in our theater.