Here’s a movie that you just sort of have to be willing to laugh at. If you can’t laugh, then you’ve probably got better things to do than see this.
I’m not a huge fan of comic books, and certainly not comics of the superhero variety. However between such recent films as Spider-Man 2, Iron Man, the rebooted Batman films and Hellboy -which my Windows spellcheck still refuses to recognize- it seems clear that the superhero movie has definitely upped its game over the last ten years.
It’s often said most sci-fi adventures are actually westerns, and that all westerns are essentially samurai/martial arts movies. All I know is, nowadays almost everything I see I’m tempted to think of as being derived from the superhero concept. The Matrix? Superhero movie. T2: Judgment Day? Superhero movie. Transformers? Superhero franchise (not all superhero stories necessarily have a brain to them or anything).
Kick-Ass belongs to what I perceive as a growing trend of ‘real world’ type superheroes: a phenomenon that probably dates back to the Watchmen, but I think also extends to NBC’s Heroes (anyone remember when that show used to be good?) and M. Knight Shyamalan’s movie Unbreakable. The current Batman movies seem to want to be part of this trend as well, whether they are aware of it or not.
Movie is directed by Matthew Vaughn (Stardust), and based on a comic by Mark Millar. Between this and the 2008 Angelina Jolie movie Wanted (loosely adapted from another of his works), one gets the impression Mr. Millar doesn’t think too highly of comic book fans. He also likes to spill a lot of blood, which is partly why I didn’t care for Wanted at all. I found it to be sadistic, pointless and stupid. Perhaps the director was at fault.
Kick-Ass is equally bloody and sadistic, however it’s also giddy and fun. Like the very best of superhero movies, it’s got a heart to it. I’ve never been ‘convinced’ that everybody wants to be a superhero… except maybe during those two hours when I was actually watching Spider-Man 2, or the first Iron Man. Kick-Ass is no Spider Man 2, but it effortlessly channels that same sense of wonder.
The violence though could still be a deal-breaker for many people. The film is independently-financed because no Hollywood studios wanted to touch it without sanitizing the source material.
I dragged my Dad to see it the weekend it opened at RAVE! Theaters, in the Town Square. He enjoyed it, and that’s saying a lot. I’ve gone back three times since. Though I think cell phones have all but ruined the communal experience of going to a movie, this is one of those films that just demands being seen with a theater audience. The reactions were absolutely priceless.
“This f-ing guy comes out of nowhere! Kicks our Asses! Steels all the Coke!”
“Uh, this would be the guy who looks like Batman?”
“I didn’t say he looked like Batman!”
“You did, Trey, you said the guy looked like Batman.”
“He said like a mask and stuff.”
“And a cape?”
“Yeah, like Batman.”
“I NEVER SAID BATMAN!!!”
-Poor Mafia dude about to get his fingers cut off by disbelieving Mafia dudes.
Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) is a high school kid who hangs out with the ‘geek’ crowd and doesn’t appear likely to get a girlfriend anytime soon. His favorite pastime is reading superhero comics, and he wonders why nobody has ever tried to be a superhero in real life. His friends dismiss the idea, claiming ‘anyone’ who dressed up in a costume and tried to help people would get their ass kicked.
After one too many instances getting mugged on the way home, Dave caves in and orders this totally ridiculous-looking green wetsuit online. Then he dons a pair of work boots and straps a couple batons to his back. Maybe he even dabbles with physical training, although I somehow doubt he really puts that much thought into it (Were those yellow dish gloves he was wearing? I think they might’ve been). Running into the same muggers as they’re trying to hot-wire a car, he decides to engage.
And he gets his ass kicked. And stabbed. And plowed by a hit-and-run driver who didn’t see him.
Not to be discouraged, he recovers from his two-month stay in the hospital, puts up a Myspace page for his alter ego, and resumes his heroic exploits (rescuing cats, that sort of thing). Eventually he manages to hold his own (but barely!) while defending a helpless guy against a band of thugs. Caught on video, Dave introduces himself to the world as ‘Kick-Ass.’ Kick-Ass becomes a runaway Youtube sensation, and soon learns he has inspired a subculture of costumed vigilantes (including the hapless dude who tried to fly, unsuccessfully, in the film’s opening teaser).
If you’ve seen the trailers or posters you know there’s a Batman look-alike in this film, along with an eleven-year-old girl dressed in fetishized purple tights and wig. These are Big Daddy and Hit Girl, a crime fighting father-daughter duo played by Nicholas Cage and Cloe Moretz, respectively. They are engaged in their own private war against a local Mafia boss (Mark Strong), a conflict which Kick-Ass sort of unwittingly stumbles into.
The fourth superhero is Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), a fellow high school loner, and son to the aforementioned Mob boss, who either wants to be Kick-Ass’ sidekick or his arch nemesis.
Filling out the main cast is Lyndsy Fonseca as Katie, Dave’s school crush, who assumes he’s a gay prostitute because he’s always getting beat up. Dave plays along with this after he realizes she’s only interested in him as a Best Female Friend. I didn’t much care for how that relationship resolved. Her prior taste in boyfriends is questionable.
Kick-Ass is a somewhat awkward experience, as it feels like two or three movies meshed into one. The world of the main character is fairly close our reality: it is a world that does not believe in superheroes but is very much aware of them. Throughout most of the film, Dave/Kick-Ass remains confined to this world.
Hit Girl and Big Daddy, however, belong to the kind of brutally-stylized action movie that I assume John Woo is famous for directing (I only know him by reputation; I saw Broken Arrow in college, but that’s it). My point is, the cinematic laws of physics will happily bend for these two characters, but not for Kick-Ass. Which I find rather fitting.
However, when the movie decides it’s time for Kick-Ass to measure up, we briefly enter a third world of improbable gadgets (and with seemingly no time to become realistically oriented with them). But since Kick-Ass is still the wide eyed school geek, this reality feels closer to E.T. than, say, James Bond. Until I’ve checked out the comic (I’m definitely curious now), I’m going to assume it’s here that the movie betrays its premise. But I guess a movie can’t fully celebrate its awareness of the superhero genre if a person cannot fly.
Nicholas Cage is absolutely hilarious as Big Daddy, the ex-cop Batman figure. If last year’s adaptation of Watchmen reduced the coldly menacing silhouette of Batman into an impotent Clark Kent figure better suited to helping children cross the street, then this time the Caped Crusader is portrayed as a seemingly incestuous father figure. (Well no, not seriously. But you have to admit there’s something ‘slightly odd’ about a father dubbing himself Big Daddy and addressing his daughter as ‘Honeybunny.’ And don’t even tell me it wasn’t intentional.)
In action Big Daddy is a more than convincing superhero. It’s when he actually opens his mouth and *speaks* that the breakdown occurs: he doesn’t exactly sound like Adam West playing Batman, but more like someone doing a deliberately-exaggerated mimicry of Adam West as Batman. I know it’s been a while since people took Nicholas Cage seriously, but he seems perfect for this. My dad especially loved the way he hollered when his ass was on fire (as in set ablaze).
One side effect of films like Watchmen and Kick-Ass doing their deconstructive take on Batman, is that it’s becoming increasingly difficult for me to take Batman seriously. If you ask me though, this movie is ‘all about’ Cloe Moretz as Hit Girl. In fact I would argue she’s the one true superhero in the show. Her role has been the subject of much controversy, and probably not without reason.
I’m sure there are serious exploitation issues with depicting an innocent, prepubescent girl, in a fetishized outfit, killing and maiming people without even the slightest hint of remorse. All the while uttering profanity in every other sentence (she uses the C-bomb at one point), and even taking some bloody nose towards the end when it looks like she’s about to be overpowered. Not to mention there are probably issues with having to cast a young actress to actually play such a part. But I’m afraid I must leave it to better, more analytical and articulate people to decide what exactly those issues are.
All I know is, Hit Girl is totally cute. Her acrobatics are cute, her purple wig is cute (it completely transforms her character), and the fact that she retains her innocence while cutting off people’s arms and legs is, well, (somehow) cute. She just has the most adorable “did you see that” look on her face. My favorite line from her comes when one of her opponents pulls out a butterfly knife and does the whole tiresome “be intimidated while I flip this thing over in my hands” routine: she delivers a wide eyed “Hey, I have one of those!” You’d think she was showing off at school, if not for the fact she’s about to sink her show-and-tell knife into the man’s chest.
I don’t agree that Hit Girl’s language in the film is ‘unnecessary’… on the contrary it becomes a crucial aspect of her superhero ego’s persona. It’s just one of those things where admittedly there’s no real reason for it, other than to realize once you’ve seen it that it couldn’t have been any other way. I also don’t ‘get’ the significance of the schoolgirl outfit she wears later on, specifically why it’s more on the basis of this (as opposed to her regular outfit) that critics have accused her of appearing sexualized. But I guess maybe the concerned individuals reacting to it must know something that I don’t.
And finally, to those snarky observers who ask “God, who uses… cough couch… Myspace anymore?” My snarky answer: high school teens still use it. Especially the Emo crowd…
Overall, a highly entertaining movie. It’s got its flaws, but almost every moment of the picture feels alive. Movie is rated R for “strong brutal violence throughout, pervasive language, sexual content, nudity and some drug use - some involving children.” A sequel, Kick-Ass 2: Balls to the Wall, may or may not be going into development sometime next year (comic hasn’t been written yet).
Movie trailers included: Iron Man 2, Killers, A-Team, Scott Pilgram vs. The World, and The Expendables. Iron Man 2 I can already tell you is good, but not great like its predecessor. A-Team, I’m now satisfied I didn’t miss anything by never catching it on TV as a kid. Expendables didn’t leave an impression.
The Killers trailer completely faked me out just like those old ‘Energizer’ commercials. I literally woke up midway through it, thought “this looks REALLY interesting”, and tried to remember what I had seen moments before that might’ve made me zone out. It’s been so at the top of my list ever since.
Kick-Ass!!
