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Kick-Ass is a film that offers something new in the now increasingly overpopulated comic book genre that has invaded cinema over the last decade. Instead of a bunch of super-powered do-gooders, the heroes are a bunch of characters who are all more or less a little disturbed, succeeding in giving the Daily Mail a mild panic attack due to its perceived threat to childhood innocence and values.
Developed alongside and based upon Mark Miller’s comic of the same name, Kick-Ass follows Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) who develops the ill-conceived plan of becoming a real life superhero. Naming himself ‘Kick-Ass’, his rather pathetic attempts at crime fighting become an internet sensation, and he soon becomes embroiled with the infinitely more effective team of Big Daddy (Nicholas Cage) and his daughter Hit Girl (Chloe Moretz), as well as their nemesis the brutal crime boss Frank Dimicco (Mark Strong) and his son. Aaron Johnson’s protagonist Dave Lizewski delivers an excellent voiceover and manages to give a relatively sane view on the unfolding events. Nicholas Cage’s Adam West-inspired Big Daddy brings back welcome memories of his old craziness, succeeding for the first time since 2002’s Adaptation in delivering a worthy performance.
Of all the films characters, by far the most memorable and enjoyable to watch is Hit Girl, the one who so angered the Daily Mail: a pint-sized angel of death with a vocabulary to make Gordon Ramsay blush. Played remarkably well by twelve year old Chloe Moretz portraying some demented version of Hannah Montana, she is far more interested in decapitating people with a samurai sword than fashion or any other more trivial pursuits. The greatest triumph of the character’s depiction is that she is fleshed out into a fully rounded character, with the scenes between her and her father providing intimate and affectionate moments that reveal her as the child she really is.
The film also succeeds on many other levels. Its script references many inspirations ranging from Sunset Boulevard to John Woo’s 1980s Hong Kong killathons; the last two actions scenes offer some truly inspired directional choices, one in which there is the first good use of first person shooting in film I have ever seen creating a superb and original shootout; there is a brilliant finale which makes use of Ennio Morricone’s legendary The Good, the Bad and the Ugly theme tune, and the soundtrack also goes on to include the likes of Elvis. However, it must be noted that although the end of the film is phenomenal, its opening is disappointing in comparison, but this is only a small flaw in a film that gets much better as it goes along.
Overall Kick-Ass is a great success both as a fantastic superhero spoof and at times as a terrific action movie. Although it may lack much in the way of any kind of meaningful message it is probably the most purely entertaining film I have seen in a long time and in terms of competition does exactly what the title says.
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