You Don't Need Super Powers To Create A Super Film

Rating: 9/10 (4 May 2011)

Based on the Mark Miller comic book of the same title, British Director and Producer Matthew Vaughn brings his legendary filming talents (Stardust & Layer Cake) and sends all guns blazing in the extremely brutal and imprudent Kick-Ass. This is an action-adventure superhero movie with far-fetched but thrilling violence, extreme recklessness and a huge element of comedy.
"With no power comes no responsibility", implied by the film's foremost protagonist Dave Lizewski (Johnson), a comic book enthusiast with an abnormal fetish for superheroes. His references to Bruce Wayne and Scott Pilgrim give the sense of realism and makes the comic geek trio seem like average college teens. His geeky ways slots him into Peter Parker resemblance, yet there are no spiders or no transformation of any kind. All it takes is a costly spandex purchase from eBay and automatically he becomes Kick Ass, a baton wielding ninja street hero with no heroic powers. His school girl crush Katy (Fonseca) is led to believe he is gay and due to his male stereotyped tunnel thoughts, he pretends the gay rumour is true.
Though Dave walks around with a "kick my ass" post-it on his forehead he can't help but hide within his alter ego and impress his girl. Aspects of Peter Parker still linger as he spends his spare time karate chopping the air (more appropriate than when he was jerking off to his teacher). It interprets clearly what real life is all about with unachievable dreams and violence on the streets 24/7. It also puts the audience into some familiar territory and gives an understandable plot with all of its post modern attributes.
Hit Girl, played ruthlessly by rising star Chloe Moretz, kicks some serious ass as she somehow blends the powers of matrix gun handling with the homicidal mind of Jason Voorhees. In a "true to life" film such as this, its hard to say she hasn't secretly been enhanced with some sort of turbocharged drug. For an 11 year old she sure knows her stuff, maybe a bit too much. Where a traditional girl her age would ask for a puppy on their birthday, she jokes about it and asks for a Filipino Balisong!
Cage adds an unfamiliar role to his resume as the "built up crime escapee" dad, classically going by the alias name Big Daddy, whose outfit is none similar to a spoofed adaptation of Batman and Night Owl. He spends the duration of the film hunting down the dangerous protagonist Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong), the rich crime boss of New York City with an army of guns at his finger tips. His son Chris D'Amico (Mintz-Plasse) is far from his McLovin ground, but still just as great.
Why hasn't anything like this been done before? Surely by now narratives are starting to repeat themselves, even with all this hype about Directors rebooting superhero films (Spiderman, Superman, even Daredevil). Working on a budget of $30m with no over exaggerated special effects, Vaughn hid himself from any distribution limits and independently funded the film. He had all intentions to dive into extreme boundaries and manages to avoid falling into the trap of trading expense for a trashy narrative. Instead he surrounds himself with college geeks, street thugs, crime bosses and aspiring hero's. Then throws in a ton of violence and a slightly altered superhero narrative, mixes it all together and turns it into a hybrid genre blockbuster. The sadistic violence may explain why Brad Pitt's name is in the credits testing out his talents for Producer.
This, in my opinion, has been the best re-creation of a comic book he or anyone else could have possibly done. In two simple words this film is bloody and brilliant! Kick-Ass can so easily blend the funniest of comedy moments, similar to that of Superbad, with intense violence that can only remind you of watching a late night Tarantino film. It uses similar conventions to that of Sin City and Watchmen where not only is it set in New York - Superhero block, but it's broad cast and considerably low budget slots it as an Indie film, whilst putting itself a fair distance away from all the Iron Man gadgets.
Vaughn shows he can clearly turn raw talent to stardom through the faces of Daniel Craig (Layer Cake), Mark Strong (the sadistic Septimous in Stardust). He's only had 3 seating in the Directing chair and from what we have seen so far, it's all masterpiece. With an X-Men prequel on the way and some new faces what's stopping the new cast from being the next Hugh Jackman or Halle Berry?!
Kick-Ass is a risky attempt from Vaughn and his ideas won't satisfy everyone in the world. The film is beyond the violence we regularly see in a 15, not to mention Chloe's "foul mouth" script, but it all adds up to a great, if not perfect film that focus primarily on fans of the "Teen Comedy" genre (those who can't get enough of McLovin with a gun).
Whilst it stays clear of any pastiche elements, Kick-Ass pulls on every possible string to place it beyond society's limits. Being a modern day game fan, I thought the POV scene of Hit Girls solo takeout scene backed up with the strobe-lighting effect was fantastic. I felt compelled to clap during the credits because I had become so hyped up. I haven't even mentioned the amazing score! Its sad to think this movie may never have been released due to its cruel nature. Stars have been found, new limits have been reached and Vaughn has realised you don't need super powers to create a super, super film. Outstanding!