Cynical and far too easy to misunderstand

Rating: 6/10 (23 September 2011)

Kick-Ass attempts to cynically deconstruct the superhero genre, and at that level it doesn't quite make it for me. Watchmen - clearly the graphic novel, but the movie too - did so much more intelligently. The sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek attitude with which the gruesome violence is shown fails to make it any less gruesome, and is all too easily taken at face value, especially by younger viewers, thus missing completely the point Vaughn was trying to make.
On the entertainment and style fronts, Kick-Ass is more successful, and it manages to create a truly fresh cinematic superhero look, a more colorful contrast to The Dark Knight's gritty realism. The acting for the most part is mediocre at best, except for the wonderful Chloe Moretz as Hit Girl and Nicolas Cage - who hasn't been this good in a long time - as bad-ass vigilante Big Daddy. It doesn't really matter though, because Kick-Ass is all about style and action scenes; the dialog-based scenes are weak and dull enough as they are, filling up the gaps in-between coolness. For comics and superhero fans, including ex-fans who long ago dropped their interest in the costumed vigilantes, this is a great piece of entertainment, but not a whole lot more.