Director: Matthew Vaughn
Starring: Aaron Johnson, Chloë Grace Moretz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Nicolas Cage, Mark Strong
Running Time: 117 minutes (plus trailers)
“With no power comes no responsibility”
Dave Lizewski doesn’t have super strength. Nor does he have accelerated healing or the power of flight. And he certainly doesn’t have enormous stockpiles of money, martial arts training, a two-ton rocket-powered tank and an English butler who doubles as a field medic. What he does have is a diving costume, a MySpace page, an encyclopedic knowledge of comic books…and a dream of becoming a superhero. Not dissuaded like so many would be by his total lack of combat training or intergalactic ability, this bespectacled teenager dons a makeshift uniform, fashions himself a weapon and takes to the streets as “Kick-Ass”, an amateur masked avenger determined to protect the unprotected. But after word of mouth of Kick-Ass’s exploits reaches the real life criminal underworld, Dave finds himself caught up in a frenzy of genuine heroes, genuine villains and genuine and deadly violence. Not to mention some very inappropriate language.
Directed by Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake, Stardust) from a series of graphic novels from Mark Millar (Wanted, Superman: Red Son), Kick-Ass was sold as a superhero movie with a difference: a bloody, profane, adults only version of the comic-book origin story we have seen so many times before. For my own part, the moment I saw a trailer that showed us a ninja-sword wielding eleven year old swearing like a sailor Jason Soto of Invasion of the B Movies, I knew Kick-Ass was a movie I wanted to see. I even went so far as to call it my most anticipated movie of 2010. In this regard I suppose I was setting myself up for disappointment, although to be fair, the movie does deliver everything the marketing material promised; there’s tons of violence, plenty of black humour and that little girl does say “fuck”. A lot.
While I left the theatre a tad disappointed, this is a very fun and very entertaining movie, thanks mostly to the supporting characters. Nicholas Cage plays Big Daddy, a caped crusader whose costume reminds us of Christian Bale’s Batman but whose speech pattern is undeniably Adam West. Now I think a big part of why his character works is because you know it’s Nicolas Cage under that mask and glue-on moustache, but he is great all the same. So too is Mark Strong as sleazy gangster Frank D’Amico, a man who microwaves his henchmen and has a vendetta against the masked vigilantes threatening to bring down his criminal empire. Christopher Mintz-Plasse is also entertaining as another costumed hero, although he’s doing nothing to escape his Superbad persona; “Red Mist” is basically McLovin in a cape.
But as we all hoped, it is thirteen year old actress Chloe Moretz as miniature warrior woman Hit-Girl who steals this film from its stars. Every moment she is on screen is an absolute blast; most of the movies wonderfully ridiculous action centres around her, and over the course of the film she stacks up a body count more than the rest of the characters combined (and this includes the villains). Kick-Ass proves that Moretz is going to be one of the best actors of her generation, and any sequel film should be focused around her rather than this film’s title character. No discredit to Aaron Johnsons, who does do a good job as Dave, but Kick-Ass as a character is simply no match for the outlandish father/daughter duo of Hit-Girl and Big Daddy. This movie works best when it’s in full blown live-action cartoon mode, guns blazing and blood spraying, all to the sound of its ironically, almost irritatingly upbeat and infectious soundtrack.
What I was hoping for in Kick-Ass was for some kind of revolutionary superhero film; I wanted it to really offer me something I’d never seen before. But for all the severed limbs and C-bombs throughout, it ultimately doesn’t do that. In fact when you look at it, this movie is basically Spiderman. Dave’s journey; his home and school situation, hopeless love life and early days as a superhero essentially mirror those of Peter Parker. Now admittedly the Kick-Ass screenwriters have added their own little twisted twists; Peter Parkers first confrontation with bad-guys doesn’t end with him getting stabbed; nor does Mary Jane only want to hang out with him because she thinks he’s gay. But while the content is definitely amped up to what is well beyond politically correct, (including a marijuana smoking scene that seems to exist solely to push that one remaining boundary – I object not on moral grounds, but simply because it felt totally pointless) the plot itself covers very little new ground.
Still, it’s probably a little unfair of me to expect Vaughn and co. to totally reinvent the genre; it’s impressive enough that they managed to put together $40 million to make this film without studio backing (ironically the reason no one would finance it is because they found Hit-Girl too extreme). This movie is definitely entertaining and I recommend checking it out before it leaves theatres; I think the reason I couldn’t quite fall in love with it (aside from overhyping it in my own mind before hand) is because it seems to be trying to offer both a believable superhero story through Dave and an unashamedly absurd Kill Bill style splatterfest through Big Daddy and his purple haired princess. It absolutely succeeds at the latter, and so I must conclude that the thing really holding Kick-Ass back is Kick-Ass himself. Show me the Hit-Girl movie and I’ll have no reservations.
Kick-Ass is in cinemas now
Starring: Aaron Johnson, Chloë Grace Moretz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Nicolas Cage, Mark Strong
Running Time: 117 minutes (plus trailers)
“With no power comes no responsibility”
Dave Lizewski doesn’t have super strength. Nor does he have accelerated healing or the power of flight. And he certainly doesn’t have enormous stockpiles of money, martial arts training, a two-ton rocket-powered tank and an English butler who doubles as a field medic. What he does have is a diving costume, a MySpace page, an encyclopedic knowledge of comic books…and a dream of becoming a superhero. Not dissuaded like so many would be by his total lack of combat training or intergalactic ability, this bespectacled teenager dons a makeshift uniform, fashions himself a weapon and takes to the streets as “Kick-Ass”, an amateur masked avenger determined to protect the unprotected. But after word of mouth of Kick-Ass’s exploits reaches the real life criminal underworld, Dave finds himself caught up in a frenzy of genuine heroes, genuine villains and genuine and deadly violence. Not to mention some very inappropriate language.Directed by Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake, Stardust) from a series of graphic novels from Mark Millar (Wanted, Superman: Red Son), Kick-Ass was sold as a superhero movie with a difference: a bloody, profane, adults only version of the comic-book origin story we have seen so many times before. For my own part, the moment I saw a trailer that showed us a ninja-sword wielding eleven year old swearing like While I left the theatre a tad disappointed, this is a very fun and very entertaining movie, thanks mostly to the supporting characters. Nicholas Cage plays Big Daddy, a caped crusader whose costume reminds us of Christian Bale’s Batman but whose speech pattern is undeniably Adam West. Now I think a big part of why his character works is because you know it’s Nicolas Cage under that mask and glue-on moustache, but he is great all the same. So too is Mark Strong as sleazy gangster Frank D’Amico, a man who microwaves his henchmen and has a vendetta against the masked vigilantes threatening to bring down his criminal empire. Christopher Mintz-Plasse is also entertaining as another costumed hero, although he’s doing nothing to escape his Superbad persona; “Red Mist” is basically McLovin in a cape.
But as we all hoped, it is thirteen year old actress Chloe Moretz as miniature warrior woman Hit-Girl who steals this film from its stars. Every moment she is on screen is an absolute blast; most of the movies wonderfully ridiculous action centres around her, and over the course of the film she stacks up a body count more than the rest of the characters combined (and this includes the villains). Kick-Ass proves that Moretz is going to be one of the best actors of her generation, and any sequel film should be focused around her rather than this film’s title character. No discredit to Aaron Johnsons, who does do a good job as Dave, but Kick-Ass as a character is simply no match for the outlandish father/daughter duo of Hit-Girl and Big Daddy. This movie works best when it’s in full blown live-action cartoon mode, guns blazing and blood spraying, all to the sound of its ironically, almost irritatingly upbeat and infectious soundtrack.What I was hoping for in Kick-Ass was for some kind of revolutionary superhero film; I wanted it to really offer me something I’d never seen before. But for all the severed limbs and C-bombs throughout, it ultimately doesn’t do that. In fact when you look at it, this movie is basically Spiderman. Dave’s journey; his home and school situation, hopeless love life and early days as a superhero essentially mirror those of Peter Parker. Now admittedly the Kick-Ass screenwriters have added their own little twisted twists; Peter Parkers first confrontation with bad-guys doesn’t end with him getting stabbed; nor does Mary Jane only want to hang out with him because she thinks he’s gay. But while the content is definitely amped up to what is well beyond politically correct, (including a marijuana smoking scene that seems to exist solely to push that one remaining boundary – I object not on moral grounds, but simply because it felt totally pointless) the plot itself covers very little new ground.
Still, it’s probably a little unfair of me to expect Vaughn and co. to totally reinvent the genre; it’s impressive enough that they managed to put together $40 million to make this film without studio backing (ironically the reason no one would finance it is because they found Hit-Girl too extreme). This movie is definitely entertaining and I recommend checking it out before it leaves theatres; I think the reason I couldn’t quite fall in love with it (aside from overhyping it in my own mind before hand) is because it seems to be trying to offer both a believable superhero story through Dave and an unashamedly absurd Kill Bill style splatterfest through Big Daddy and his purple haired princess. It absolutely succeeds at the latter, and so I must conclude that the thing really holding Kick-Ass back is Kick-Ass himself. Show me the Hit-Girl movie and I’ll have no reservations.
Kick-Ass is in cinemas now
