The superhero film should be impervious to further reinvention.
We’ve had an uber-serious “Batman,” a Dark Knight with metallic nipples, a drunken superhero in the form of Will Smith, and even a sort-of super duck from outer space.
But “Kick-Ass” still manages to wring something fresh out of a seemingly exhausted subject.
Based on the popular comic book, “Kick-Ass” may be the next logical step in the genre’s evolution – what if a regular Joe decided to throw on tights and fight crime sans super powers?
He’d get crushed. But that’s where this dark but guilty pleasure begins.
Young, nebbishy Dave (Aaron Johnson) doesn’t hang with the hipster crowd. He’s an outcast more at home with his fellow nerdlings.
But a nagging thought starts eating at him. Why not create a superhero character out of whole cloth – and a diving suit – and go fight crime? What better way to escape the rut that is his social life?
Thus Kick-Ass is born. And, before you know it, it’s his own buttocks which gets a good thrashing.
Dave isn’t the only wannabe crime fighter. Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage, having a ball) and his young daughter Hit Girl (Chloe Moretz) are also out fighting crime, but they’re getting much better results.
It helps that Hit Girl is a one person wrecking crew. More on her in a moment.
“Kick-Ass” is several movie genres in one. Take a smidgen of “Revenge of the Nerds,” the eclectic feel of “Mystery Men” and the R-rated “Watchmen” and you’ve only scratched the surface.
Director Matthew Vaughn (“Layer Cake”) guides it all with an unsteady hand, nailing the action and pathos but taking far too long to settle on the story’s ultimate tone – sheer nastiness.
These heroes bleed. Often.
Johnson makes for an appealing quasi-hero, never pushing too hard on the nerd accelerator but retaining his sense of humility even when fame enters his life.
Audiences will likely be too distracted by Hit Girl to notice.
Moretz gives a flashy performance as the pint-sized hero, a warrior who makes up for her lack of size with sheer brutality. Her eyes blaze beneath her standard issue mask, making her the heir apparent to Dakota Fanning as the next child actor to watch.
But do audiences really want to root for a savage pre-teen in tights?
It’s upsetting to say the least to watch her slash her way through the film’s cardboard thugs, and Vaughn doesn’t skimp on the gore.
One’s enjoyment of “Kick-Ass” may rest entirely on a willingness to process her character. And those who can’t have a very good argument, even if this critic was able to overlook the moral murkiness.
Mark Strong of “Sherlock Holmes” fame delivers another bracing turn as a film baddie, while McLovin himself – Christopher Mintz-Plasse – stretches a bit to play his conflicted son.
“Kick-Ass” is not for the kiddies, or those who can’t stomach the sight of children doing things even adults shouldn’t do. But as a slam-bang action vehicle with more than a few twists, “Kick-Ass” sends thunderbolts coursing through the movie house.
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{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for the review…Been looking forward to the movie. Haven’t read the comic yet, but if the movie entertains than that is next on my list.
I must admit I’m very intrigued by this film. But I haven’t yet decided if I want to see it or not. I think your review may have tipped me more towards seeing it. Maybe?
Thanks for mentioning McLovin. I thought I recognized his voice in the trailer (couldn’t tell because of all the costumes) and couldn’t find his name in the credits at IMDB.
There’s an electricity to the film I really enjoyed … it’s rare to get that in a movie these days. It felt, toward the end, like we were all witnessing something sorta unique.
I think I’m gonna get to this on Wednesday. I don’t much know what I’ll think but I suspect that this’ll be something worth talking about either way. Moral murkiness + thrills-a-plenty can make for great debates.
I can’t do it. I can’t reward them for getting a young girl to say “c_nt.”
I’m with Kensington. I was interested in seeing the movie until I saw that dialog in the red-band trailer. No thanks. A real human child was saying those lines, not an animated character voiced by by an adult.
I went to the film this morning. Personally didn’t have any issues with the girl’s language and after seeing what the girl does and what is done to her I doubt her colorful use of the english language would be anyones biggest complaint.
Enjoyed it overall, it took it’s subject matter seriously without being campy and handled it, (except for Hit Girl), in as realistic manner as possible.
It was a little long for my taste and perhaps focused too much on a number of minor characters. I also got the impression that Cage’s former partner had a much larger role that was edited down to nothing. Cage also had a much smaller role than I had expected.
The one BIG thumbs down was the dreaded use of the quick cuts during the action sequences to the point of being incomprehensible at times.
Oh how nice, an 11 year old using words that most adults don’t. What’s next, having 11 year olds in sex scenes? I think I’ll pass on this movie.
Looooved it! I was befuddled by the kinda crappy box office numbers so far, though. All the 18-25ers I know were anxiously awaiting it.
Christian, you asked:
“But do audiences really want to root for a savage pre-teen in tights?”
Yes! The audience in my theater loved her!
Yikes!! Yet more comic book movies? Little girls in purple wigs ,”kicking ass,” yep that’s what pop culture needs .
I’m sorry, but I found watching really bad guys getting annihilated by a trash-talking little girl quite funny. Roger Ebert called “Kick-Ass” morally reprehensible, yet he loved the blood soaked “Kill Bill Vol 1″, calling it “brilliant”. If you haven’t seen it, “Kill Bill #1″ featured a bloodthirsty schoolgirl assassin. As far as putting a teenage actress in a controversial role, I would have more of a problem with Linda Blair in “The Exorcist”, Jodi Foster in “Taxi Driver”, Natalie Portman in “The Professional”, or Dakota Fanning in “Houndog” than Hit Girl.
Given this is based on a book by the hack-driven hype machine comicbook creator named Mark Millar> Violence in comic books doesn’t bother me that much, essentially because comic books aren’t exploitive like films are, but this is the way films are going, they’ll either be family friendly or R-rated stuff based on kids dying or killing other people.
‘Bowling for Columbine’ wasn’t a documentry, folks. It was a hope… that they could make money off of dead kids.
I find it interesting how people complained about the language of the young actress. I saw the movie over the weekend and loved it! Kids that age curse, the play guns and blow things up with fire crackers. I know I did at that age. And I can tell you that at her age I cursed up a storm too! Am I out murdering people now because I saw a bunch of kids curse up a storm in “The Goonies”? Not that I’m aware of.
People really need to lighten up a bit. She knows it’s a movie and it’s not real. Kids are smarter than we give them credit for. “Kick-Ass” was great.
I think this review is spot on, as are the references to Kill Bill in some of the above comments. I thought the movie was fantastic, but partly because I still can’t quite figure out what it was all about. I knew very little walking into the show, expecting something more along the lines of a Superbad, but I was shocked, exhilarated, conflicted, and pensive throughout. The movie is truly unique, Hit Girl stole the show but is also worthy of a serious conversation about child artists and how we depict them–even in R-rated films. The director rarely took the easy or expected path, despite being constantly presented with the opportunity.
Enjoy the show.
Please rest assured that my problem with a bunch of adults filming and affirming a young girl saying “c_nt” is not that she’s going to grow up and murder people.
And, yeah, I know that kids curse. I cursed. I didn’t however, get paid by adults to curse on camera. In fact, I didn’t curse around adults at all because I knew that such behavior was unacceptable.
We are not making a better world by paying children to say “c_nt” on camera, and we might well be making a worse one in ways perhaps more nuanced than fearing that cursing children are a step away from becoming murderers.
So I’ll lighten up a bit, and maybe you should think this through a bit.
As for the school-aged assassin from Kill Bill, can we at least agree that the character was not meant to be celebrated, unlike Hit Girl? The buzz of Kill Bill was not about the young woman (quite a bit older than Hit Girl, by the way) who slaughters people.
In fact, ultimately, the heroine of Kill Bill protects her young daughter and rescues her from the savage world. She doesn’t train her to go out and fight the Crazy 88s herself.
The “heroine” of Kill Bill wasn’t protecting her daughter. She didn’t know her daughter was alive. She was simply out for revenge. “Kill Bill” was artistic but “The Bride” was an assassin just like the killers she hunted. She offered no mercy. The killed Vernita Green in front of her little daughter. And Gogo Yubari is supposedly aged 17, a minor, in the movie. I”m sorry. I don’t see how Ebert can heap praise upon “Kill Bill” and be shocked by “Kick-Ass”. Hit Girl is more of a role model than any character in “Kill Bill”.
Movies are fake so I don’t have a problem with movie violence in R movies. But, I don’t like it when really violent movies are aimed at young kids.
It’s funny that Kick-Ass is getting rise out of some reviewers. They have no problem with extremely violent PG/PG-13 movies aimed at kids because adults are doing the killling. I would argue that Raiders of the Lost Ark (rated PG) is nearly every bit as bloody and violent as Kick-Ass.
Critics like Ebert also love violent, ammoral films like “Kill Bill” and “Pulp Fiction” because they’re arty.
“Kick-Ass” is an appropriately rated movie (R). I will fault the K-A trailers which were aimed at a younger audience. They make the film look like a cute teen comedy.
Maybe on DVD. (It ain’t showin’ nearby in Alabamy)
I’ll think on it.
“Hit Girl is more of a role model than any character in “Kill Bill”.
I have to agree with this. Kiddo knifed a mother in the chest while her daughter was right there watching and then told her it was because the b**ch had it comming to her. Hit girl is obviously missed up in the mind due to her dad but at least her dad spent time with her. shes also the only down-to-earth character in the movie. she kills people, but only bad ones. she loves and honors her dad. [SPOILER AHEAD] I cringed a little when the big baddy was tagging her in the face but that just made it all the more pleasurable and funny seeing him ride the rocket. Also, the torture scene where hit girl is busting peoples ass in FPS mode with the NVG. literally one of the greatest shooting scenes since “heat” IMO