Review of Kick-Ass (2010) by Donovan M — 08 Dec 2013

Kick-Ass is a movie that I thought was going to be great. A satire of comic book vigilantism combined with the idea of a "real" teenager putting on a costume and fighting crime and well...getting his arse kicked as a result.

The films first fifteen minutes are good. We learn about the protagonist, what kind of kid he is, we get a couple of funny jokes thrown in and finally, we see the reprecussions of this kid trying to emulate his comic book idols and also just how naive he really is.

..and then it all goes downhill. (Spoilers!) The moment Kick-Ass is hit by a car mere seconds after being stabbed and left for dead by a pair of carjackers he tried to stop, the movie just gets more and more silly and unrealistic as it goes on.

I said before that the protagonist Dave (played by Aaron Johnson, who does a good job in the role) was naive, but I was being kind. As the film goes on, this guy stops being naive and just becomes a complete idiot.

Now I don't mind the idea of seeing a naive person who doesn't understand how different realiy is to comic books being a big character, but when this character is the main protagonist, with no level-headed character to bounce off, and we are supposed to root for him despite how much of a moron he is, I just can't help but feel irritated.

This is a big probem with the film, the characters are all over the place. I don't understand who I am supposed to take seriously or laugh at. Big Daddy (Nicholas Cage, very funny in this role) and Hit-Girl (Chloe Moretz, who gives a brilliant performance as the pint sized assassin) only work (in my opinion anyway) when they are used for comic relief.

Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong, with a New York accent) is an okay but forgettable villian and as for Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) He was just a milder, villianous version of Kick-Ass. The bottom line is this, at the end of the movie.

I didn't really care about any of these characters, and when I don't care about them, I don't care about the plot either. I have no problem with intense violence, but some of it just feels unnecssary, like the microwave scene, what on earth was the point of it? The final fight scene of the movie made me wince and cringe as we were forced to watch a child get repeatedly punched in the face by an adult! That was just too much.

In fact, the only fight scene I enjoyed was the one with Big Daddy. The rest just frustrated me. Kick-Ass has a good opening, a great cast and the potential to be great. But the bitter taste of nihlism I got from watching this movie (not to mention the moronic characters, the unnecssary violence and the ridiculous ending) just left me dissapointed.