Kick-Ass deconstructs the superhero genre and assembles specific components to create outlandish action.

Rating: 7/10 (18 June 2018)

Matthew Vaughn found his style with this film, a style that would later become a trademark for his most successful franchise 'Kingsman'. Excessively stylised action that excel in showcasing gratuitous violence with comedic flair. All blending into a light hearted story in the name of entertainment. Yet, Kick-Ass is slightly more intelligent in its execution than the average action flick. A high schooler is tired of being invisible, so he creates a superhero alter ego in a bid to fight crime and become noticeable. Utilising a standard formula for any superhero origin story and flipping it upside down by becoming a self-referential comedy. By allowing its own awareness to seep through the plot, it suddenly becomes hilarious and that is exactly what this film needed in order to differentiate itself from the clustered genre it resides in. Then applying Vaughn's glossy use of blood and guts spewing from every direction, the film suddenly becomes intelligent and entertaining simultaneously. It's just ludicrous fun. During its deconstruction of the genre, there are times that the plot succumbs to the clichés it sets to avoid and thus becomes predictable for the most part. Fortunately, an interesting cast list keeps the narrative flowing. Moretz is the foul-mouthed "Hit Girl", the always eccentric Cage is "Big Daddy" and Johnson the optimistic protagonist "Kick-Ass". Cage and Strong gave the best performances with natural comedic execution to their dialogue, particularly the former who forcefully communicates like a broken robot. Johnson played the alter ego well, but unfortunately didn't really suit the nerdy character of Dave. The action, for the most part, was well edited although certain scenes felt slightly haphazard, especially the final shootout which was crazily mental. Overall, I admire the intentions of Kick-Ass. It's light, fun and entertainingly humorous. A more exciting plot would've elevated the originality, but Kick-Ass definitely kicks ass.