3) The Hulk
One of the few things that Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four movie did well was lending some grit to an obviously ridiculous comic book scenario. Trank took four ordinary characters with superpowers thrust upon them, and imagined what it’d be like if real people had to deal with that kind of physical and mental trauma. In the brief scene where Ben Grimm and co. awaken in a lab, distressed, Trank brings a palpable Cronenbergian body horror element.
It’s an element that could easily and effectively be applied to a future Hulk movie. No PG-13 standalone film featuring the big guy has been able to convey the violence of the Hulk’s transformation, nor the effects of his rampages were they to play out in the real world.
An R-rating would allow a filmmaker to fully explore the very human tragedy of Bruce Banner, while also facing up to the clumsy brutality of the character when he’s out of control.