Entertainingly violent and care-free if not as smart or as funny as it wants to be

Rating: Null/10 (17 May 2010)

Kick-Ass caused a fair bit of hand-wringing when it came out in the UK – and of course most of it was from the media outlets such as the Daily Mail where all their commentary only appears to have two modes – (1) hand-wringing and (2) smug superiority. Anyway, the issue appeared to be that this was a very violent film with very strong language and that it contained a child actor involved in all of it. On one hand one could question the decision by the parents to let a child do this even in play-acting, but to be honest the film is so gloriously over-the-top that it never takes itself seriously and is unlike to bring about the collapse of society that Tooky predicted in his review.
This level of attack has unfortunately sparked the opposite extreme – where those that like the film feel they have to love the film and praise it as much as the detractors hate it. This is unfortunate because the film does not deserve to be either blamed for society's woes or to be praised to the high-heavens as if it were the most clever subversive film ever made. The truth is that Kick-Ass is very entertaining in an excessive and ridiculous way. Taken as a response to the darker comic-book movies of recent years, Kick-Ass revels in the ridiculousness of it all, having little pops at the genre clichés and taking everything to a silly excess. In doing this it is consistently funny and entertaining in a trashy way.
The references will probably date it somewhat in time, but the nods towards other genre films and things such as Modern Warfare 2 will be appreciated by the target audience. The violence may be condemned for being excessive and gratuitous but doing so is a matter of taste since this is really the point of it – it is supposed to be OTT and it is weirdly enjoyable for it. I don't agree with those that would have this be something it is not though and it is not a film that makes full use of the potential to be smart and make comment. The potential is there though but if it does start out with some clever ideas, these are generally surrendered as the film goes along – it doesn't affect how entertaining it is, but it prevents it being as clever and as memorable a film as it could have been.
The cast buy into the excessive nature of it very much and it is they that help carry it along. Johnson in the lead plays his geeky part well, although he was always going to be in the shadow of Mortez, who delivers with great presence and charisma throughout the film. True there is a strange air to seeing a child do what she does but this does not detract from her performance and it is not her fault the material did not make slightly more intelligent use of her character being in this excessive mode. Cage is the big name and is he good playing it for gentle laughs – his imitation of Adam West when in character is a great touch. Supporting is roundly good (and within the tone of the rest of the film) from Strong, Mintz-Plasse, Rispoli and others.
Kick-Ass is not the anti-Christ but neither is it the wonderfully brilliant film that others would claim as it doesn't deliver on the potential to be clever and to be subversive. However the resulting excessive comic-book movie is still very enjoyable and funny and if this is what you are looking for then it does deliver on that.