Movie 94: Kick Ass

This right here? This is me passing the amount of movies I watched last year. Technically it’s the next one as I’ve reviewed way ahead, but I wanted the Kick Ass review out as quickly after I’d seen it as possible and at time of writing I planned to see it on Saturday.

And I did see it on Saturday. I love it when a plan comes together. Right, plot.

Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) is a comic book nerd and all round unremarkable kid who asks himself the question “Why does no one dress up and fight crime in real life?” and then decides to do just that. What a run on sentence. Anyway, giving himself the name Kick Ass he heads out and is promptly badly fucked up. After a long recuperating period he has more metal in him than the tin man, and some nerve damage that means he doesn’t feel pain so much. Instead of giving up, he goes out again with some better success. A video of him on You Tube becomes a sensation, but unfortunately local mobsters give him credit for the work of the more capable team of Big Daddy and Hit Girl. Kick Ass is in over his head…

Sorry if you think that’s spoilerific, but it shouldn’t ruin anything. Before seeing this movie I hadn’t heard a single bad review for it, ignoring places like the Daily Mail that get mad about 11 year olds saying cunt and stabbing people. And that’s fitting. It’s a damned good film, not perfect, but really good. Particularly the last 30 minutes which as mind blowingly brilliant.

The bad comes from the fact that this is a first film in a super hero, well hero, franchise. Spider-Man and The X Men aren’t as good as Spider-Man 2 and X2. Same goes form Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Because you have to set up the characters and the world there’s inevitable slow parts, and Kick Ass has that problem too. But that’s understandable and completely fine.

Unfortunately the comic came out right when I stopped reading comics. I have issue 1 and that’s it. From what I’ve heard it follows the comic story very closely which is a good thing.

Aaron Johnson does a fine job as the main character, being very nerdy out of costume and a bit more confident in it. Kick Ass isn’t really a major stand out character though, even though we pretty much follow him all the way through. He is my kind of hero though. I’m a big fan of old school Jackie Chan and the 80’s Bruce Willis hero type. I like my guys to take a shit kicking before they come back.

The bad guys, while generic gangster types, don’t suffer from the B grade problem I had with the Punisher. These are proper wise guys, with witty dialogue. And they’re well developed as there’s hints at a side life. Obviously with one of the main characters being the mobsters son you get side lines like planning to go to the movies while someone is whacked in the background. There’s a lot of funny dialogue between these guys and it works very well.

As for the professional heroes, Nic Cage is Big Daddy here. I actually though Big Daddy could have done with some more dialogue in costume for the joke to work. He has plenty of character development, but without more room the “Adam West Batman” accent joke doesn’t QUITE work. I still found it funny.

The stand out of the whole movie, and the biggest controversy, is Hit Girl. Big Daddy’s 11 year old daughter who he’s been training for the last 6 years to be a 4 foot killing machine in pig tails. She. Is. Awesome. And not just the ass kicking parts. Those scenes to stand out, and they are rather brutal, but in the non-killing people parts Chloe Moretz comes across at times a harden little bitch and others as the vulnerable little girl that she is. She feels like a mini Bride at times and I’m not sure if that was deliberate homage in the way it was shot, but Hit Girl is the Tarantino character that Tarantino never had the balls to put to celluloid.

And that’s one of the big things about this film. I can’t see a studio ever letting this get finished the way that it came out. It’s not the most shocking film ever made, or the most controversial, but its enough that the big studios wouldn’t touch it. So they made it themselves then found distrubtion. Big risk, but big rewards.

This isn’t for everyone, but by the fact that your reading a blog review by a nobody who uses an 80’s TV character as a pseudonym and its on the internet says that its no doubt for you. Go enjoy, and I expect Kick Ass 2 will probably be even better.

On a side note for the locals, I plumped for the VIP seats in Vue for this one. It’s only £1.30 more after all. Not sure if I’m sold on them. If you with someone, don’t bother. Your that little bit too far apart to be able to talk (before the movie, maybe during the ads and I like to say something about the trailers) and you’ll feel like your there on your own. If your by yourself it might be worth it but I’m not sure if the seats are all that more comfy. Would be nice if they were tilted back a bit more, but I’m a bit of a sloucher.

Next up: I Love You Man