This is not an immoral movie

Rating: 9/10 (22 May 2010)

Much of the hatred for Kick-Ass is because it is truly politically incorrect. Hit Girl and Big Daddy love their guns and are completely unapologetic about it. Many liberals have a knee-jerk negative reaction to anything that appears to be promoting guns or gun culture. But the real problem that liberals have with this movie is the way all the main characters have an unwavering dedication to justice. There are no bleeding heart liberals in this movie. Big Daddy and Hit Girls show no remorse or hesitation in ending the lives of morally-bankrupt gangsters who operate above the law and who are ready to murder any innocent person who gets in the way of their "business". Liberals hate the kind of moral certainty shown by Big daddy and Hit Girl. Even Dave (Kick-Ass) is ready to die rather than allow a group of thugs to beat an innocent man to death. Contrary to what many reviewers have claimed, Dave's motivation for being a superhero are not selfish. Dave is altruistic. He enjoys the fame (and sex) that his new vocation has brought him, but he is not driven by those things. His primary motivation is to bring justice to the innocent. This is why he is so upset when he sees how much better Big Daddy and Hit Girl are at exacting justice on the guilty. Which brings me to my main point about the so called "immoral" violence in this movie. The people Hit Girl and Big Daddy are killing are totally immoral, profit-driven gangsters. YES, this does makes all the difference in the world. Big Daddy and Hit Girl are not killing innocent people. They are killing gangsters who are ruining the lives of innocent teenagers by selling them drugs.
Remember the whole story with Katie (Kick-Ass' girlfriend) at the needle exchange? This little sub-story was a subtle way of showing how the drugs the gangsters were selling were turning other people into gangsters like themselves. Even Frank Damico is caught by his son smoking cocaine. There are very subtle messages like this all throughout the movie. Some reviewers said that the movie lacked subtly, and this is their most incorrect criticism. There is a lot of subtly in this movie but it requires careful watching and an open mind (unclouded by ideology) to see it. It is true that the lines between good and evil in this movie are clearly defined, but that doesn't mean it lacks subtlety in other areas. The scene when Dave Lewinsky, after nearly being beaten to death by gangsters, looks in the mirror and realizes what he has gone through in order to pursue his vocation is a truly powerful and subtle scene. Without using any dialog the director brilliantly coveys both Dave's pride and remorse at where his decision to become a superhero has finally taken him. This is a powerful and inspiring scene. The Dark Knight tried to do something similar in the movie's final scene when Commissioner Gordon praises Batman for being a hero who is ready to sacrifice his own reputation to save Gotham, but it just came off as lame and formulaic. In contrast, the mirror-scene in Kick-Ass was truly inspirational. Hit Girl's dogged determination to punish those who killed her mother and father is also inspirational. Her methodology may be violent, but her motives are pure. By the end of the movie the audience is cheering for both her and Kick-Ass. The scene where the two of them realize their true superhero-status by flying through New York on a jet-pack was a stroke of genius by Michael Vaughn. Kick-Ass is not perfect, but it deserves a lot more credit than some reviewers have given it. I strongly question the motivations of those who are trashing it.