Cidade De Deus + Marvel/DC Comics + Guy Ritchie + Of Course, A Bit Of Tarantino.

Rating: 10/10 (15 February 2011)

1. When I watched Kick-Ass for the first time what came to the mind was what is essential in Cidade De Deus/City Of God: a mix of kids and teens with extreme violence, amorality and dark humor. Hit-Girl is the girlish answer to little psychopath Dadinho (played in the Brazilian movie by Douglas Silva). I don't know if Cidade De Deus actually influenced the director Matthew Vaughn but as the movie was a big success in the UK - it was then considered the movie of the year by the Empire magazine, for example - that is not so unlikely.
2. The parody of Marvel's and DC Comics' characters is obvious and hilarious. Bem, both comic studios cannot complain much on Vaughn - after all the superhero idea was taken from the Greek heroes like Hercules and Perseus.
3. Kick-Ass does reference, of course, to the ultra-violent style of Guy Ritchie and Tarantino's Kill Bill - the animated sequence doesn't deny its source - although Kill Bill has not even 1/3 of the Kick-Ass quality. Frankly I dislike Tarantino's movies, they seem mere pretexts to show pornographic violence. Moreover, taking out the violence, what remains in Tarantino's movie? Practically nothing ...
A pornographic violence which Kick-Ass almost lets itself enticing by. But fortunately the movie is much more than a little girl mutilating the leg of a drug dealer. The movie has a brilliant humor, amazing performances, spectacular edition, a cool soundtrack and a very much original story.
Original? But it's not a spoof of several superhero movies, parodies Kill Bill and looks like Cidade De Deus? That's right: despite the movie to make many references to other movies it is highly original. It may be paradoxical but who watches Kick-Ass has the distinct feeling that just saw something new, totally fresh and inventive by comparison to the weary superhero and teen movies released every year by Hollywood.
The major highlights of the movie, besides the inspired direction of Vaughn are, of course, Aaron Johnson and Chloë Moretz - the two actors burst the screen. At first sight Hit-Girl is the mesmerizing character - mainly because of the shock caused by her very young age (11 years old) - but after you see the movie another times (I've seen 4 times), you appreciate more the work of Johnson , which is outrageously good (and convincing) as the awkward teenager and nerd who, childishly, dreams of being a superhero in the real life - Damon Wayans did something similar in Blankman but without the same result.
The faces that the super expressive Johnson does are priceless. The subtle changes in voice intonation of his character are very skilled. He even uses a tone of voice for Dave and another for alter ego Kick-Ass. He built a perfect teen personality, very different from his real personality, by that we see in the actor's interviews on the internet. Johnson is the soul of the movie.
Hit-Girl/Chloë Moretz is the most striking movie's element, no doubt, but it is also its biggest problem. I'm no moralist but I understand that many people reject the combination of a little kid character + slaughtering. Yes, the violence is most often caricatured and provokes more laughter than disgust. Yet sometimes the director exaggerates and some deaths are sadistic: a) why murdering a simple hooker who are escaping and it is not a threat anymore? b) kill a villain in a junkyard crusher after interrogating him is out of tone, even if being a comedy. c) severing the leg of a drug dealer is gratuitous graphic violence.
In a country like the U.S. where non-criminal young people, apparently normal, awake on a bad day and decide to kill their classmates - wow - involving child with slaughtering is really something hard to swallow. People are afraid that the Hit-Girl figure functions as an appeal for the kids and influence a generation of little psychos... Bem, I don't think the concern of these people is unjustifiable. Kick-Ass seems to be a movie for teens but it is a movie for adults. Not only because the inappropriate content for minors but also because generally only adults can appreciate all of its humor and quality.
Apart its little sins Kick-Ass is not only the best movie of 2010 as the best movie in years. Really amazing. It's everything the movies of Spider-Man, Batman, Iron Man, etc, should be but never succeeded. Even Hit-Girl's fighting scenes are graphically more ingenious than those of Marvel/DC Comics' superheroes ones - what a shame, Spider-Man!
Surely we all will watch Kick Ass 2: Balls To The Wall but it will be hard Matthew Vaughn and his little gang to make another story so original, creative and irresistible as the first Kick-Ass. Let's hope Matthew will show I'm wrong.