Another example of bad marvel comics inspired cinema- Spoiler alert!

Rating: 2/10 (8 September 2010)

Why is it that comic book adaptations are considered sacrosanct territory in Hollywood? Are they just not one more way of entertaining middle class people... In a nation where Batman is considered the height of subversiveness and Iron-man the new age patriot, Marvel inspired filmmaking just hit a new low. Kick ass opens with Aaron Johnson as Dave, a 16 year who wants to be a superhero and tells all of us that the real world of doctors, lawyers and bus drivers is plain ole boring. One day (inexplicably) he buys a green suit(for $99 that no one knows how he came by!) online, and starts off in the good-guy business. Using police batons to beat up 'bad guys' he makes it to the you-tube top 10, and is noticed by veteran superhero Big Daddy ala Nicholas Cage and his 11 year old daughter/disciple/guinea pig in the experimental art of murder, arson, shooting and stabbing 'Hit Girl' played by Chloe Moretz. Eventually Dave gets laid by his high school sweetheart and then finds himself drawn into battling Big and Hit's arch nemesis Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong)and his treacherous son+ wannabe superhero Red-mist ala Chris Mintz. Daddy ends up dead, and Kick and Hit join forces to end the film in an orgy of vengeance. Apart from the mediocre acting, pointless characters and mostly absent plot line, it was an entertaining film for those who it targeted (teenagers and wannabe superheroes!) For me, there are some glaring and basic problems with this piece of celluloid. First, I feel that unlike most superhero comics this film did not contain any sort of message for its audience. Second, from start to finish the film shows (almost lovingly) the violent and vicious acts committed by the protagonists. Thirdly the film foists a rather skewed morality on its viewers by repeatedly asserting that in todays America, (where you can get 20 years for sex with a 'minor' but be out in 7 for murder of a minor!) young people (preteens, adolescents and older teens) must be ready to combat violence with violence, that its okay for little kids to shoot, stab, maim, kill and decapitate those that they perceive as a threat. Thus the film unwittingly ends up siding with kids who carry knives and guns to school and train in violent combative skills from an early age, and going against kids who may choose other means of 'expression'. The unflinching and graphic cinematic display of children 'coming of age' by committing violence, and, the scantiness or absence of other expressions (sexual, familial, social, athletic, artistic etc)show the great puritanical, ageist and self righteous American paranoia of 'realism'. In short Kick Ass seems to be glorifying murder and aggression by showing kids that love is overrated and war is underrated. It seems to be a recruiting poster for a new 'generation kill' in USA where its okay for a 13-16 year old to know all about where bullets, F-16's and bazookas come from and how to use them,... but not okay for them to know where babies come from and what youth,love, passion, talent and life are actually all about! That is why such trash is NEVER made in Europe.