Review of Kick-Ass 2 (2013) by Riatsala — 20 Aug 2013

Kick-Ass 2 might be worth the 9 bucks to see. It's an occasionally enjoyable ~2 hours. This being said, it falls so flat as anything other than a slightly more "adult" run-of-the-mill superhero film. I know that comparing a movie to written source material is unfair, but what is lost in the transition from comic to screen is astounding. Gone is the gruesome, horrifying critic of superhero worship and the glorification of violence. This movie, rather, is a checklist of hero movie cliches, poorly filmed action sequences "bad-ass" one liners, and the complete lack of emotional depth from any source save perhaps Chloe Moretz's performance as Hit Girl/Mindy. What little lethality is on display is completely lost in the final scene, wherein a clash between two masked armies in a warehouse comes off more as a West Side Story dance fight than the logical conclusion of 90 minutes of gunfights, stabbings, and brutal beatings.

I digress, though. The worst part of this movie is not that it's generic. The worst part of this movie is the absolute ham handed way that the more adult themes are handled. Violence is made to be applauded and glorified while being so cartoon-ish that it's almost distracting. Women characters, with the notable exception of Hit-Girl, are used as romantic props and tiresome cliches rather than characters of actual depth. The home invasion, attempted rape, and subsequent beating of one female character is played for comedic effect.

Kick-Ass was meant to be a heart-wrenching commentary on the sacrifice of heroism, the cold reality of violence, and the immaturity of superhero worship. It's also a story of good triumphing over evil, despite all. Somewhere along in production, the former was lost in favor of bolstering the latter. Whether it was a conscious decision on the part of those who funded the movie or a failure on the part of those who created it, I'm not sure, but you, the audience, have been robbed.