Kick-Ass [2010]
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Genre: Action/Crime/Thriller
Language: English
Country: USA
Immediately after watching Kick-Ass I was not sure how I felt about the movie. The film started off in one direction, playing up the story of a nerdy teenager (Aaron Johnson) who dons a superhero costume and goes out to fight crime despite having no training whatsoever. I loved this portion of the movie, as his superhero alter-ego, Kick-Ass, was obviously no match for a group of thugs and got his ass handed to him. Despite a trip to the hospital, Kick-Ass is not ready to give up on his dream and decides to give being a superhero another try. A couple of other “wanna-be” superheroes enter the mix shortly after, and this is when the plot takes a completely different turn. These two new crusaders are a father (Nicholas Cage) and 11-year-old daughter (Chloë Grace Moretz) known as Big Daddy and Hit Girl, respectively. These two actually have skill, know how to fight and are highly trained with weaponry. Big Daddy and Hit Girl are on a mission to obtain vengeance against a prominent mob boss (Mark Strong), and somehow Kick-Ass gets involved in the middle of all this.
While I enjoyed this transition into a different storyline, it came as a bit of a surprise considering I was not familiar with the comic books the movie is based on. It almost felt as if there were a bit of an identity crisis. The first part of the movie was spent basically teaching us that ordinary kids should not mimmick their favorite superheroes, then all of a sudden the other two copycats come in and start annihilating any bad guys in sight. Don’t get me wrong – Hit Girl is a highly entertaining character, basically a pint-sized version of The Bride from Kill Bill – but it just felt peculiar to swerve into this direction.
Although many may be offended by the movie’s gratuitous use of violence (much of which is inflicted by children) and occasional profanity, I happened to love all of that! There were certainly a lot of over-the-top killings and fight scenes, most of which had particularly graphic results. This cartoonish violence added to the whole comic book feel, as well as the scene shiftings taken straight out of comics. Without a doubt, there was nary a dull moment in this flick.
One particular detail that really rubbed me the wrong way, however, was the inclusion of an absolutely ridiculous storyline. At the risk of giving away spoilers, I won’t go into too much detail but needless to say it is rather unrealistic (even by comic book standards). I read the synopsis of the books the movie is based on after viewing, and it sounds like this storyline was much better in book form. If there is one thing that I cannot stand in movies, it is an unneeded romance plot with a weak ending.
In the end, I truly did enjoy Kick-Ass as an exaggerated comic book action movie. However, its faults are too blatant to be ignored. Chalk this one up as an enjoyable romp that does not quite live up to its potential.
6/10
