Doesn't really come together

Rating: 5/10 (10 August 2010)

The one thing that shines through most attempts to parody, satirize or "deconstruct" the superhero genre is how badly most of the would-be deconstructionists *want* the superhero fantasy to be true. This often lands their efforts in an awkward no man's land between homage, demystification and completely straight-faced comic book action.
Kick-Ass is a perfect example of this. It's really two different movies, both of which have their moments but that don't ultimately mesh together very well.
1. The first movie is a teen drama about the title character, Kick-Ass, a forgettable everyteen who becomes a forgettable superhero-wannabe, but whose pluck and optimism and irrepressible imagination we're meant to admire. His story is uneven and, regrettably, mostly uninspiring stuff, populated by cardboard cutout high school archetypes. His attempts at superheroism are hilarious -- and so are his interactions with false-flag fellow "hero" Red Mist -- but if I'm meant to have any fellow-feeling with the character's hopeless optimism and completely clueless lack of preparation, I can't always get there. When he winds up getting stabbed and then run over as the conclusion of his first attempt at crimebusting, I'm laughing *at* him more than I'm rooting for him. The scene that leads to his fifteen seconds of viral video fame, which shows him persevering through a heinous two-on-one beating, is a lot more sympathetic and inspiring, and had me finally starting to like him... but unfortunately that kind of spirit never recurs, because this first movie is very quickly stomped on by a second movie.
2. The second movie is about the *real* superheroes, Hit Girl and Big Daddy. This movie seems to think it's deconstructing the "real" superhero; Hit Girl is a prepubescent kid who's been drafted into an insane quest for revenge by her father, a lunatic who tries to disguise his voice when in costume by talking like William Shatner. The pair strike a distinctly squicky and psychotic note as they cut an epic swathe of blood through the movie's cartoonish criminal elements and draw the hapless Kick-Ass in their wake.
But the thing is... this second movie isn't really a deconstruction at all. It's just a movie about violent antiheroes. Comics discovered the violent antihero in the Seventies with the invention of the Punisher; it's not a groundbreaking concept at all, and Kick-Ass doesn't take it anywhere very new. There's no real consequence (save to himself) in Big Daddy's evident madness, for instance; he and Hit Girl never hurt or kill anyone who doesn't deserve it, and the criminals they destroy might as well be silhouettes on a shooting range. Ultimately, while including some well-done kung fu set pieces, this half of Kick-Ass is just straightforward comic book stuff... and the character of Kick-Ass just doesn't belong in this second movie, which squashed his own story just when it was starting to get interesting. His sudden transformation into a guy capable of mowing down rooms full of people with a gatling gun couldn't be less convincing.
The ill-fitting puzzle pieces of Kick-Ass are not, then, especially well-crafted in themselves nor all that satisfying as a whole. There's some entertainment to be had here, but it's inconsistent.