Review of Kick-Ass (2010) by Brandon M — 05 Mar 2015

Basic: Kick-ass is based on a graphic novel by Mark Millar, who previously wrote his graphic novel, Wanted. It's about a 16-years old high school student/ comic book nerd (played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson), who has an idea of becoming a superhero at New York City. It's like he's slightly going into this origin of spider man, but the problem for him is that he doesn't have any superpower and he's not at all fully trained as a fighter. Then, the film also gets into some other characters in the film: Big Daddy (Nicholas Cage), Red-Mist (Christopher Mintz-Please), and Hit-Girl (Chloe Grace Moretz).

What's the deal: I would start off and say, "Yes, I've read the graphic novel of Kick-Ass, before I watch the movie." What I felt with it when I read the graphic novel was pretty interesting. I thought it had a nice storyline, and Mark Millar shows so much creativity of the stories that he had written. Now, the film is directed by Matthew Vaughn, who's better known for producing a lot of Guy Ritchie's films, and he also directed Stardust, which that was an enjoyable film that I experience. Based on a novel by Neil Gaiman, Stardust was quite scary, but that was in the book. The movie, on the other hand, was going through a lot like The Princess Bride. The fact that, Stardust was blended genres of fantasy, romance, comedy, and it also had a bit of action there as well. So, anyway, to the point of Kick-Ass, Matthew Vaughn uses all of his tricks, and all of his skills to make this adaptation of Mark Millar's Kick-Ass of a complete spoof, but a violent spoof. It's also a film that goes on so many different elements. The fact that it starts off as a high school comedy, then it goes from being a superhero movie, quite like Watchmen, and then, it plays off with so many references to Quentin Tarantino's movies. And, I think that's one of the greatest things about the film, is that it goes on so many different levels, and it's does it in a way, that feels very entertaining. I'm not saying that Matthew Vaughn is like Quentin Tarantino, but he does manage to make his set-pieces to the point of being excited, and also thrilling. Now, I wouldn't say that the film is without its flaws. One of my problems that I have with this film is that the pacing, for me, at times, I felt like it was going uneven and, inconsistent. Sometimes, it was going slow, and sometimes, it was going completely fast-paced. The other flaw I had with the film is that some of the dialogues we're lacking a little bit of energy, but there we're other dialogues that were good, and sometimes funny.

The real kick: I would never forget about the cast, actually. Aaron-Taylor Johnson does a fine job of what he's gotten as the main character, while Nicholas Cage, who's playing Big-Daddy, really does give so much energy on the character he's playing. But the one performance, who keeps people off guard, is Chloe Grace Mortez. Her character, Hit-Girl, who's rough, ruthless, violent, and also cusses, and somehow, she really steals the show, whenever she's onscreen.

My full opinion: It does have a lot of minor flaws, and that does include its pacing and some of its dialogues, but somehow Kick-Ass managed to be a fun, gleeful violent superhero action comedy. 8.3/10.