Have you ever wanted to be a superhero? If you’re anything like me and you answered yes, then Kick-Ass is the movie for you. Ever since I was a child, I wanted to be a superhero and as I matured into my older years, I realized that it wasn’t exactly a viable career choice. I had a fascination with Batman shown evidently through the huge plastic box of over a hundred Batman action figures in my basement. I even dressed up as the Flash for several Halloweens but was never able to use the costume to its full potential. I have always wanted to have that experience and Kick-Ass is the ultimate wish fulfillment without actually getting the crap kicked out of me.
Based on the comic by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. and directed by Matthew Vaughn, the film follows Dave Lizewski who is an average high school kid and comic book fan played by Aaron Johnson. He wonders why no one has ever tried to become a superhero before. He then dons a wetsuit to fight the good fight himself without superpowers while members of his community continue to ignore people in need. He garners attention from other costumed heroes and a crime boss and his son when a video of his crime fighting blows up in popularity on the internet.
Kick-Ass encompasses a range of genres in a way to entertain and engage in all respects. The film is a hilarious comedy at times, a romantic comedy, a sweet, heartfelt and heart wrenching revenge story and an awesome action movie. It combines the realistic character driven drama with action movie logic that wouldn’t normally make sense in any other flick but Vaughn is able to find a middle ground. Matthew Vaughn is a spectacular director who is able to accomplish a great lot. Every film in his repertoire is different and he is able to create a specific style for each. He uses wonderful primary colours in several scenes and creates inventive sequences like using a flashing light gun attachment as the only light source or an animated comic book sequence that keeps the movie fresh and exciting. He is able to create dark atmosphere in a scene and then do the complete opposite in another and still keep an even tone and pace throughout.
The film is a postmodern superhero tale that takes familiar scenes and concepts from comic books and superhero films and adds a twist. These scenes are paying homage to the past superhero flicks. It’s easy to see how Vaughn’s postmodern superhero take is being compared to Quentin Tarantino’s postmodern films for its use of pastiche.
Performances are top notch and yes even Nicolas Cage is awesome in it. Aaron Johnson is perfect as Dave Lizewski and Kick-A. The U.K. born actor speaks with a spot on American accent and portrays Dave steeped in uncertainty when he throws himself headfirst into each situation. Nicolas Cage is absolutely hilarious when channeling Adam West in his Big Daddy costume and he portrays an unconventional but nonetheless loving father in the most heartwarming scenes of the film. Christopher Mintz-Plasse, who will always be known as McLovin, is surprisingly good as Red Mist/Chris D’Amico and I even started to forget about his notorious role in Superbad. I must also mention Mark Strong who plays the mob boss, Frank D’Amico, and is amazing in every film. Chloe Grace Moretz is the show stealer as Hit Girl. She can be extremely bad ass and totally sympathetic in the same scene. One might think that a film where an 11 year old child is spouting profanities and cutting off limbs left and right is typically amoral and straight up wrong. I had no problem with it because of the world and tone that Matthew Vaughn has created and I found myself and the rest of the audience rooting for Hit Girl in every scene she had.
The score and soundtrack are also brilliant by combining pieces of score from Sunshine and 28 Days Later. The ultraviolent Hit-Girl scenes are juxtaposed with poppy punk and bubble gum rock songs that accentuate and create a witty comment on par with any of the dialogue of the film.
I’ve also read the eight issue series that the film is based on and it’s very faithful to the source material. While I really liked the comic, I found that I absolutely loved the film. Matthew Vaughn and Co. were able to take the spirit and main storyline of the book and give it heart which was missing from the comic and left it feeling slightly empty. The personality that was injected into Kick-Ass made me care about each of the main characters so that when the shit got real, I was immediately on the edge of my seat and hoping for a positive outcome. Several changes were made for the better and work to create a smooth flow in comparison to the comic and allow for some great moments that were missing in the book. Each scene has high stakes for the characters involved instead of the book where it just didn’t make sense for the character to be doing what they were doing. The changes are logical and make more sense and contribute to a streamlined story without unnecessary elements.
I utterly adore Kick-Ass and it’s definitely in my top for 2010 so far along with How to Train Your Dragon. If you like capes and cowls and don’t mind some violence then you definitely have to see this movie, I highly recommend it.
(9.0/10)
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