Kick-Ass Review

Deidre only got to be up for a few hours on her own (or is it HIS own?...) So if you read this, please give that a skim as well. It's only fair.

The previews for Kick-Ass make it seem like a teen-superhero spoof, simultaneously ripping on both comic book films and coming-of-age comedies. Perhaps the most memorable sequence in the trailer is when Christopher Mintz-Plasse (best known for his iconic portrayal of McLovin' in Superbad), clad in prototypical superhero spandex, jumps from the top of a dumpster in a dark alley, and upon landing grabs his ankle as he winces in pain from the modest feat. Such a sequence functions mainly in two ways: pointing out the implausibility of superheroes in general, and also poking fun at the seriousness with which young people too often take themselves. Point made.

But Kick-Ass as an actual movie (and it should be noted that the film is based on the comic book of the same name by Mark Millar) functions in neither of these ways. Its objective, rather than subversively spoofing, is to create a superhero-teen comedy hybrid that entertains in both respects, but comments on neither. Once expectations are readjusted, Kick-Ass manages to be a pretty decent movie, but even so, throughout the film you get the feeling that it could have been so much more.

This is particularly true in one of the final fight sequences of the film, when the main storyline has virtually run its course and all that's left is to plow through a mob (literally) of enemies to get to the inevitable final boss. Hit Girl (Chloe Moretz), a perky yet violent 11-year-old costumed hero, blasts through heavily armed men three times her age and size with startling speed and creativity (the sequence starts with her firing a gun through the mouth of one unfortunate security guard into the head of another... how cool is that?!) while Joan Jett's "Bad Reputation" rocks in the background. Such an inspired scene, bloody, brutal, and bad-ass, is a glimmer of what Kick-Ass could have been throughout - a pop-superhero fantasia that rocked as hard as it socked.

Alas, the resulting story is far less interesting. It follows Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson), a dweeby comic-a-holic who wishes his own impact on the world was as forceful as Batman's. Disgusted by the apathy seen all around him, he costumes himself and sets off to take on the city's crime by his lonesome. Dubbing himself Kick-Ass, Dave's crime-fighting career begins inauspiciously, hunting for lost cats and the like. But as he moves on to more impressive exploits, videos of which quickly going viral, Kick-Ass becomes a national phenomenon. The stakes, however, are raised as well. Kick-Ass befriends Hit Girl and her vengeance-seeking father Big Daddy (Nicholas Cage whose presence helps keep things light), real deal crime-fighters who aren't afraid to go the full distance in dealing with the city's scum. Bodies start racking up and Kick-Ass becomes inextricably entangled in Hit Girl and Big Daddy's grudge against crime boss Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong).

Ms. Moretz's performance as Hit Girl is astonishingly fresh, easily standing out among the rest of the characters, which could find themselves in any serialized superhero saga. No 11-year-old should be this violent, bludgeoning gangsters as if skipping down the street, mercilessly murdering their uninvolved associates trying to escape. The frivolity with which she enjoys the mayhem is both entertaining and unsettling, and when compared, the other characters in Kick-Ass feel like cardboard cutouts.

That's probably due to the fact that they are involved in what appears to be a spoof that could never quite get off the ground. Kick-Ass contains the setup for a Shaun of the Dead-style subversion of the superhero genre, but instead falls into the very traps it was poised to expose. The hot girl falls for the invisible nerdy kid when she finds out he's a superhero; the hero contemplates throwing crime-fighting away for a carefree existence, but is pulled back by the allure for one last adventure that should only take a minute (I'll bet that'll go well); the ending (SPOILER ALERT) is a cliffhanger showing the vanquished villain's son (Mr. Mintz-Plasse) ready to take up the mantle and seek revenge*. These are all things that can be seen in any old superhero movie, and Kick-Ass suffers from a lack of imagination in integrating commentary along with cliche.

However, imagination is the last thing Kick-Ass is short on when it comes to the fight sequences. Finding creative paths in the choreography of and transitions into the combat, one forgets about the weaknesses in Kick-Ass's script and feels free to just enjoy the ride. Fights double down on stylization and camp (see Hit Girl's aforementioned combat sequence for a case in point) never feeling repetitive. If only the rest of the movie could follow suit. At present, it is caught in a no-man's land between spoof and homage.

*Yes, I did just give away the ending to the movie, but the script's lack of complexity leads me to believe that you (like me) would have seen it coming anyway. It sort of shows off my point that this movie was utterly predictable if you have any knowledge of the superhero genre.