[This movie is Kick-Ass. It's also kickass. That's right, it's one bad, m'fing movie. I'll say this now: Highly recommend unless you are deathly allergic to awesome.]
Pre-Ramble: Basically the trailer was enough for me. I didn’t really care about the guy or Nicholas Cage’s awful beard/mustache and his godawful speech pattern – this movie should have been named “Hit-Girl: With a Side of Kick-Ass.” Sure he does the voiceovers and supposedly this movie is about him. But [SPOILER ALERT] Hit-Girl is definitely the draw, here. Violence and bad language isn’t terrible, her epic line is in the NSFW trailer and honestly it didn’t feel exploitative of her age or made into an overly-sensationalist publicity stunt. I’ve seen movies where getting a kid to say a swear word was done poorly (The Mummy 2 “My dad is going to kick your ass” blah blah…I mean, totally unnecessary and irrelevant to the plot) and it’s not abused here. Honestly, the whole debate about her acting is much like the debate of whether or not video games are “art,” as according to Roger Siskel who likely has never played a decent game and has his head shoved so firmly up his ass where even a colonoscopy dare not tread.
But I digress. Seriously, it’s a great film. Not exactly a “classic,” but definitely likely to be a cult-favorite. Also, Mark Millar (Wanted) wrote and had a hand in this – gotta say, I’m loving his style of comics and comics-to-movies.
First Glimpse: I’ll try not to spoil since it’s in theaters and again, pretty awesome. There was some concern heading into the movie of how much fun it would poke at the whole superhero genre, like the “Scary Movie” series where they pretty much spoof every horror movie convention ever. While it’s funny, it gets old after the first 30 min. Let’s lay those fears to rest, there is an actual story here (likely because it is based off of a comics mini-series and those do require at least a modicum of plot – unlike most films being released today HI-OHHHHHH). Certainly more than a few plot twists that took me by surprise, leaving me engrossed in the film and not crossing my arms across my chest and fuming at how they could have done such and such a thing better. The casting was a nice mix of some knowns and unknowns, which lent a very fresh feel to the movie. I feel as though because I don’t really know the actors, I had less expectations of their characters and could enjoy the movie more. I’ve never seen the main character’s actor before so I really didn’t know what to expect – his performance is rather vanilla. Nothing sticks out terribly wrong yet nothing sticks out as terribly intriguing, either. He acts more as a vehicle for us to see the rest of the film and its characters, than a driving force in the plot. Through him we see the assorted cast of heroes, villains, innocent civilian bystanders, etc and we can enter this world where one crazy kid decides to be a hero without any powers or training of any sort.
There are a few scenes reminiscent of Spiderman, the first movie. I sincerely hated the sharp decline in quality from 1 to 2 and don’t even get me started on 2 to 3. Yet, the brand-new, fresh feel of Spiderman 1 was also present here in Kick-Ass, in an homage to the superhero conventions – introvert with power and a sense of responsibility, brimming with optimism, tries to change the world. The movie definitely doesn’t try to follow the superhero archetype, choosing instead to say “get real, seriously.” However, that’s not to say that the movie is one of those gritty, documentary-esque movies taking a look into the possibility of real life superheroism. In fact, as the film builds and holds your attention, it seems to push the envelope of your willing suspension of disbelief, almost like a friend telling you an obviously tall tale but trying his hardest to sell it as real. It doesn’t get too out of control, and again, it definitely has its share of surprises.
Final Glimpse: Critics will probably whine about the plot and that pushing of the envelope, but I have to say, it scratches that itch for humor, “oh it’s just a movie,” action, and some nice visuals. Chloe Moretz, the wise-beyond-her-years younger sister in (500) Days of Summer is a pretty bad m’fer. For a kid actor, she really seems to shine. You can tell she relished the role and that part of her really wishes she could be a real life Hit-Girl sometimes. Nicholas Cage was pretty insufferable and I’m not entirely certain why it had to be him, he’s very generic and honestly didn’t add much to the film. Again, Kick-Ass himself is not the draw here, the overall story and of course Hit-Girl’s shenanigans are the draw. Still, I gotta give the film an 8.5/10. While it’s no cinematic masterpiece, there’s some snappy dialogue, some rather interesting plot twists, and certainly engrossing overall as a film. I’m taking off 1 point because it did feel like it was trying to tell a whole lot in one film and there are side stories I would have preferred to explore. But then it would get into the whole “three-quel” disease that Hollywood has become plagued with and I’d much rather not see Kick-Ass go down that dark road. -0.5 because some points pushed my willing suspension of disbelief a little too far. On the one hand, it’s a film that seems to enjoy pushing that limit and building on the slightly-ridiculous to weave a good yarn. On the other hand, my OCD prevents me from truly enjoying that. There’s no deus ex machina, thankfully, which I became increasingly worried about as the film went on. I just felt that certain scenes pushed a little too far, maybe a little too *nudge nudge wink wink “it’s just a movie”*.
Still, I highly recommend you watch this if you’re into awesome and gratuitous violence. There’s a lot going on with this film and plenty of comic book fans won’t be disappointed by this comic-to-movie adaptation. But yeah, I’m still fuming about Spiderman 2 and 3, X-Men 2 and 3, Wolverine: Origins…*boiling with rage*
