Review of Kick-Ass 2 (2013) by Dan F — 29 Jul 2014

If you're familiar with Mark Millar's underwritten Kick-Ass 2 comic, this film will stand out as a marked improvement. Certainly, there is violence for the sake of it but the film does know where to draw the line.

In fact, it seems to be directly criticising two excised Millar sequences (the dog decapitation and gang rape are replaced with things that work better and address the mistakes of Millar's comic).

Characters are combined, expanded and introduced where new writer/director Jeff Wadlow sees fit, which mostly works fine. The satire of super heroes suffers slightly with the odd cinematic cliche creeping in (vengeance, high school segregation etc) but anyone who feels it's not being realistic obviously didn't see the bit with the jet pack at the end of the first film.

The script isn't as sharp as Goldman's, and the dialogue slumps on occasion, but it's still pretty tight in the action stakes with some imaginative choreography. There's also a great supporting cast- Andy Nyman, Ian Glenn, Steven Mackintosh, that kid from The Fades- and they don't get a lot to do, but it's nice to see them around.

Kick-Ass 2 is an entertaining sequel which doesn't pack the same punch as its predecessor but wraps the story up nicely. Shame about a piece of shit Jessie J song at the end, and the after credit sting of course.