Rating: ****It seems almost crass to say that Kick-Ass is a great superhero movie. In many ways the movie, not to mention the comic it’s based on, hates superheroes. This might not have been the intention of comic creators Mark Millar and John Romita Jr, and it probably wasn’t the intention of filmmaker Matthew Vaughn either. Still, it’s a feeling I got while both reading the comic and watching the movie.
Then something interesting happens. Kick-Ass, the scuba suit-wearing, heroic identity of Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson), confronts three hoodlums beating up a fourth. In the annals of super-fights this ranks somewhere around Archie Vs Punisher, but then there’s a moment. One of the punks says to Dave/Kick-Ass, “The f**k is wrong with you, man? You'd rather die for some piece of $#!t that you don't even f**king know?” after the hero-wannabe refuses to leave a man down. “The three @$$holes, laying into one guy while everybody else watches? And you wanna know what's wrong with me? Yeah, I'd rather die... so bring it on!” Kick-Ass retorts.
Bull’s Eye. This isn’t Spider-Man for the cynical. This is Mr Smith Goes to Washington for the Twitter Generation.
Kick-Ass isn’t really a movie servicing the trope of what if superheroes existed in the real world. If you want that, go over to the DVD shelf and re-watch Watchmen. This film is more satirical. Not a comedy mind you, but darkly funny. Sometimes uncomfortably funny. It’s a tone I don’t think a lot of people got, but for the open-minded Kick-Ass is infinitely rewarding. It’s about teenage alienation, feeling powerless in a power-mad world, and making your own fate. It’s all that plus Nicolas Cage at his spastic best. (On a side note: for prime Cage go out and rent Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. Now!)
The story is about Dave, your average high school comic nerd, and his pursuit of a simple dream: to become a superhero. Why hasn’t some crank with an axe to grind ever put on a costume and acted out delusions of Batman, Dave ponders to his friends (Clark Duke and Evan Peters). Simple, they’d get their ass kicked. Bing. Of course, the first time that Dave dons the green scuba suit of Kick-Ass, that’s exactly what happens. However getting beaten, stabbed and run over is no deterrent for Dave, and after his aforementioned exploits make the Must See list on You Tube, Kick-Ass becomes a sensation.
But what’s that old saying about imitation? Kick-Ass begets a number of copycats, among them Hit-Girl and Big Daddy (Chloë Grace Moretz and Cage), a daughter-father team that’s out for revenge against the mob boss that framed Daddy’s ex-cop alterego, Damon Macready, as a drug dealer. Now, the most controversial bit about Kick-Ass has been Moretz portrayal of Hit-Girl, a 12-year-old with the lethal skill of Bruce Lee and the potty mouth of Andrew Dice Clay. Sure, she uses the C-word and the MF-word with zero discretion, but as compared to scenes of mob guys getting microwaved and blown away by bazookas, can we grade on a curve the cursing? Shoot, I’ve heard worse in the mall.
The real money in this movie belongs to Cage, channelling his skeezy best with a sort of paternal Adam West as Batman patter that’s both heartfelt and creepy. As well, Mark Strong plays demented and motivated in the best comic book villain tradition as mob boss Frank D'Amico. Johnson is alright in the title role, not that his purpose is particularly inspiring. After all, the character of Dave is supposed to fade in the background, but there’s really nothing to say that he’s grown from the experience by the end of the film. I did enjoy the moral corner that Dave is painted in. His altruistic intentions crumble when confronted with the full extent of the evil people are capable of, and watching how he squirms feels real.
Which brings us to McLovin’ Christopher Mintz-Plasse who plays the final member of the heroic quartet, Red Mist. Here, the movie drops the ball because unlike how the comic sets it up, we know all along that Red Mist, AKA: Chris D’Amico, is the some of Frank D’Amico. Which makes the eventual double-cross rather tedious because we know it’s coming and waiting for the other shoe to fall takes a lot of fun out of it. On the other hand, there would have been a lot of missed opportunities for Mintz-Plasse and Strong to interact, and a lot of those scenes were pretty golden. So I guess it comes down to a matter of story versus character. I’m just not sure which one wins more in this instance.
Still. Kick-Ass is immensely enjoyable overall. It’s a deconstruction of the superhero myth that’s both critic and fan, and more miraculously, both spheres are able to exist in the same orbit at the same time without one adversely affecting the other. It’s a very well done piece that proves once again that Matthew Vaughn knows what he’s doing. Vaughn, as you may or may not know, was once to be the director of X-Men: The Last Stand. Probably for the best though because if Kick-Ass proves one thing again, spandex in a superhero movie still looks lame.
