coldfrog said:
I was amazed with how much they got away with, especially since I had heard nothing about any controversy involving an NC-17 rating, and with some of the movies like Clerks 2 having issues with that I was quite surprised when I saw it. It had scenes that were about as close to pornographic as possible.
NC-17 is based more on violence. However it's really dodgy and you have to get INSANEly graphic.
To gain it for pornographic rating it has to have no artistic merit (see Clerks1/2), be rather gratuitous, seriously, very few nipples, and you have to show it in a tasteless manner IE: erect.
Dr. Manhatten's penis scenes were minimal, and very strong statements about his disconnection from humanity. It had artistic merit to it, was not gratuitous, an you never once seen him using it.