Kicked Watchmen's Ass!

Rating: 9/10 (15 May 2010)

How dumb would it be to start my review with: Kick-Ass Kicked Ass! But it did. It's my highest rated movie (so-far) of 2010, so I have to start on a positive note, however obvious and clichéd.
This wildly original, exciting, funny and suspenseful movie is the movie I wanted to see in Watchmen. Both are HARD-R films, both are ADULT-oriented comic-book adventures and both involve a masked adventurer that's eerily too close to coping Batman. (In Kick-Ass's defense, they were trying to spoof, while Watchmen simply ripped Batman off.) But, only Kick-Ass succeeded in adding both fantasy and enjoyment, shock without revolting and dialogue worth quoting.
The movie starts brilliantly by telling you immediately this is the Family Guy of comic-book movies, orit looks like its good for kids, but far from it. (SEE: the "leap of faith" and Dave's (Johnson) first fantasy, prior to being a superhero.) He's just a normal, high-school geek, horny for girls (old and young alike) and have equally standing buddies. A la Peter Parker. His "brilliant idea" is to become a masked superhero, or "Kick-Ass," to do what most people won't: help those in need or when attacked.
It doesn't go as planned, and they perfectly show the realism if this were to happen. All that happens to him during his "training" made me kept thinking these must be dreams, but they were for real.
Finally he gets his big break while somewhat fighting off three thugs and becoming an internet sensation. This prompts other "superheroes" to take to the streets, but with far greater motivations. Big Daddy (Cage) is the Batman-wannabe, and anyone that thinks he's a rip-off, think of the homage he's playing in addition to the refreshing site of someone that's playing the fake-Batman from The Dark Knight's opening: a gun totting and lethal/killer Batman. His daughter, Hitgirl (Moretz) has her own background story, but in the present she's a daddy's little girl and is perfectly willing to do anything he says or does when it comes to murder, death or slicing & dicing.
Eventually they meet, but Kick-Ass's over his head. He gets his girl and an Incredibles's Syndrome knockoff sidekick Red Mist (Plasse) with definite ulterior motives of his own. (If you caught the Syndrome reference, then you pretty much know what kind of character he is.) The movie certainly goes into familiar territory with the finale/outcome/climax, but since you already know what type of movie this is 10 minutes in, you can just sit back and enjoy the adventure and fun.
I did like Johnson as he did what he needed to in his role. Plasse showed again he had little range outside of his normal McLovin role from Superbad. So, if you like him in that role, you'll enjoy him here again. I'm not a Nicolas Cage fan, though I don't hate him or his acting. Here, I loved what he did with the faux-pas Batman, especially the voice.
While Cage stood out, but the number one star of the movie was Moretz. I heard a lot about her "offensive" and "vulgar" character prior. To me, she was wildly original and out-acted the entire cast with her depth and emotion. As realistic as most of the movie was, she was over-the-top, and that wasn't a bad thing. I enjoyed every second she was on screen, especially when she pulled off Kill Bill Vol. 1's Gogo Yubari role as the sweet little terror. (I also loved it when Puss In Boots did this in Shrek 2.) Recently I learned she is to play the main role in the Americanized remake Let Me In from the original Let the Right One In. I already looked forward to the reboot, but now I can't wait to see it.
As I've pointed out, there's tons of references (and probably dozens more I left out) to other films. I didn't have a problem with that. It was nice to see them all in a fresh and real-life setting. The movie blends what real kids do, i.e. Facebook.
I acknowledge the movie isn't perfect as there's a balance problem where they seemed like they had too many ideas on the table and the film moved from one mood to the next and sometimes without ease. In addition, it was easy to see how (most, not all) the scenes would play out. Nevertheless, I was entertained from the get-go and it never let up or let me down.
This is a highly recommended super-hero movie (It even had a great soundtrack) and I'm sad to see it didn't do well with the box office, though I understand it's definitely geared to a specific audience.
Side Note: I haven't had a feeling for a low-brow/Spring released movie like this since Lucky Number Slevin four years ago. Coincidentally, neither made the money they deserved and I make no apologies for the love I have for both of these movies. I felt both had great dialogue, humorous scenes, good action and most importantly for my taste: originality.
Side Note 2: Contradictory to my normal criticisms and reviews, I really enjoyed the character of Hitgirl. Normally, I'd be all over the abuse of a child and ranting about CPS, etc, but since pretty much her role was so wrapped in fantasy, it was easier to see her as fiction and not a child being put in such peril as would normally offend me.