'Kick-Ass' is entertaining to watch but with mixed aftertaste

Rating: 7/10 (17 April 2010)

In this film, Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) is a high-schooler who isn't particularly popular or athletic, but loves comics. One day, he decides to don a superhero costume, name himself "Kick Ass," and fight crime at night. After few mishaps, he succeeds, and becomes an instant celebrity. Then, he meets Big Daddy and the 11-year-old Hit Girl, couple of more capable (and secretive) masked vigilantes, who are trying to take down the crime boss Frank D'Amico. He winds up joining forces with them. Meanwhile, D'Amico hatches a plan to kill him.
The film is directed stylishly by Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake), based on a comic book by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. The film starts off like a teen comedy with Dave and his friends talking about girls, comics, and how there aren't any heroes around. I really liked the premise of the film—the whole "what if" scenario of a normal person fighting crime in a real world (that is, without all the money that Bruce Wayne in Batman had), which is probably why I loved the first 30 minutes of it. Once the mafia and other heroes come in, it goes more into that superhero action movie mode with explosions and other stuff people pay for.
Aaron Johnson plays his role as the geeky Dave with great conviction and sympathy. His character is heroic not because he is capable, but he has a heart of a hero. Chloe Moretz plays the 11-year old Hit Girl with a lot of attitude. There's certainly some shock value of a little kid cussing and vanquishing bad guys, but more on that later. Nicholas Cage brings a lot of dark humor playing the oddball father role as Big Daddy.
The plot pretty much takes the initial premise and just runs with it, breaking many rules along the way. There's teen angst humor aplenty, the geek dialogue is a lot of fun, and there's occasional dark violence, which can be a mixed bag. There's a certain optimistic innocence to the character of Dave, which is nice in context of the story, but the limits of realism of the film's world can be rather unclear. Perhaps it's more for sake of realism (or is it?), but the heroes are allowed to kill people (well, at least the bad guys). I can imagine Sylvester Stallone from Judge Dredd screaming, "I'm not under the law—I am the law!" Traditionally, though, even up to the more realistic The Dark Knight, killing is the one rule that heroes often don't break—and they take it more seriously. Given the fact that this is a comic book movie, or at least a celebration of that genre, it's surprising that it's not at least addressed. But, it helps the action, so it's mostly glossed over.
The action is fun to look at, quite well-edited, but rather unsettling, when one thinks about it. I take it the novelty here is seeing an 11-year old girl cussing and ruthlessly gunning down adults (yes, they're still bad guys) in stylistic, over-the-top fashion. I suppose it works within the context of a comic book movie, yet we see gore and blood and gunshots rather realistically. Quite a desensitized kid we have here. Now, imagine if we had a black kid playing this part. There would be a huge uproar and this film would be amongst the most controversial movies ever made (never mind that these are still bad guys getting killed). Of course, we don't really believe that a little girl could ever do that stuff in real life, which is why many are not as bothered by it. It's dismissed as usual comic book silliness (at least until we see a similar event happening in the news). Call me sensitive, but it left a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth.
This film, overall, was entertaining, unique, and certainly had no shortage of style. Some compared this movie to The Dark Knight—I guess they must've not liked The Dark Knight as much as I did. The Dark Knight had a lot more layer and Christopher Nolan's works are always more complex beyond the surface. I also prefer Watchmen and Spider-Man over this. This film is well-acted, the dialogue is interesting, and I liked the characters enough to wish they make it to the end. Beyond the surface, though, the film isn't quite as fun as I'd like it to be. On occasion, Dave sometimes did feel like second fiddle compared to Hit Girl and Big Daddy, who are the ones pushing the plot forward. And, of course, that mixed aftertaste I had.
I recall a nice moment in the film where an onlooker at a window watches a mugging-in-progress, then merely looks away, not even calling the police—Dave then points out that average people have become desensitized about things like justice. I really appreciated that scene. I wondered what would've happened if the film expanded on that idea about society? Perhaps he'll discover we don't really need a costumed hero in allowing justice to be done. We can all be heroes by doing the bare minimum of looking out for each other. After all, desire for justice is one of the reasons we are inspired by superheroes. It certainly could've been a more interesting, multilayered movie. Overall, though, ** 1/2 out of **** stars.
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