Will make you care about superheroes again.

Rating: 9/10 (27 March 2010)

Watching the trailer for Kick-Ass I was pessimistic. It appeared to be extreme for its own sake, the characters were lazy and unoriginal. The relationship between hit girl and her father especially struck me as forced and weird for its own sake. Having now watched the film in full I can't say I was wrong.
The difference, though, is that all of these elements work perfectly in context, because when a human being decides to go superhero they're likely to be an unoriginal weirdo, and are certainly taking things to unnecessary extremes. This is the beauty of Kick-Ass, and allows it to effortlessly achieve that which a recent crop of big budget deconstructive superhero flicks have fruitlessly strived for in recent times. The Nolan Batmans, Hancock and, most significantly, Watchmen tried to show us the consequences of putting a hero in the real world, then laid before us vastly unrealistic and exaggerated characters for our consideration. The problem with these films was that they got bogged-down in their own significance, imploring us to stop and deeply think about what a superhero is and the consequent moral implications, etc, etc. They failed to realise that comic book superheroes do not truly exist, and if they do it is for no other reason than to entertain us. By grasping this, Kick-Ass shines as wonderfully easy to relate to and batsh*t insane, simultaneously.
Many reviewers have praised Kick-Ass as a "thinking person's film" for its unconventional approach to the superhero, but I would argue the exact opposite. Its characters occur so naturally and its events so typically that the viewer just has to sit back and enjoy the show. Its treatment of superhero legend somehow avoids both damnation and mockery, and feels like nothing other than joyful celebration and homage. The glue that holds all of this in place is the film's magnificent sense of humour which, despite the odd self-aware joke that might lose its potency over time (not wanting to die "before finding out what happens on Lost" an example) sure as hell made me laugh.