Review: KICK-ASS

Kick-Ass

Starring: Aaron Johnson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Chloe Grace Moretz, Mark Strong, Nicolas Cage

Directed by: Matthew Vaughn

What better movie to give my first actual review for the blog than the most controversial movie of 2010?  I think what shocked me most about it, though, is that my own opinion would land somewhere in the middle.

The action-comedy focuses on a high school student named Dave (Aaron Johnson) who, in a very quixotic fashion, sets out to become the first actual superhero.  After some serious life-threatening trial-and-error, he finds his popularity growing, donning the name Kick-Ass and developing a cult following.  This unfortunately crosses crime lord Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong, who, along with Sherlock Holmes and signing on as the villain in Green Lantern, seems to be on the road to becoming the next Christopher Lee), who elists his son Chris (Christopher "McLovin" Mintz-Plasse) to pose as a hero himself, known as Red Mist, to find out as much about Kick-Ass as possible.  Kick-Ass's path soon merges with that of  Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage, doing his best Adam West) and his daughter Hit Girl (Chloe Grace Moretz), two rogue vigilantes who have a personal score to settle with D'Amico.

And thus we reach our controversy.  Hit Girl is 12 years old.  She cusses like a sailor.  She ruthlessly kills several villains and take some seriously hard hits when her life is in danger.  Naturally many critics and family advocacy groups were outraged and offended.  Even Roger Ebert, my favorite film critic, gave the movie one star because of the issue, calling the film "morally reprehensible."  So what do I think?

Well, yes, there was plenty of discomfort for me, but not for the same reason.  It's not so much that she's 12...it's that both the character and her father are brutal murderers.  The two almost gleefully kill of hoardes of men, some of whom are either unarmed, unfortunate bystanders, or begging for mercy.  It's revealed (and this is NOT a spoiler) that Big Daddy has basically brainwashed his daughter to be the killer she is since her youth.  In terms of superheroes, it's kind of hard to root for characters like that.

Speaking of the violence, all of it is very brutal.  Yet director Matthew Vaughn tries to insert a good bit of comedy into these moments, even trying to play some of the violence off for laughs (moments involve Kick-Ass's first attempt at stopping criminals and one very realistic torture scene involving two of the heroes).  This hinges on the tasteless, as the intensity of the scene far outweighs any laughs that can be mined from it.

Does this mean I didn't like the movie?  Not at all.

The performances (especially by the five leads) are very strong.  Johnson is a very likeable, relateable hero. Mintz-Plasse shows a good bit of dark side, a good effort to move past that Superbad image.  Strong continues to play a great villain, and Cage has another great hit among his hit-and-miss career.  And, whether it disturbs you or not, Little Miss Moretz shows a surprising amount of talent, not only showing some great acting chops but also doing most of her own stunts (seriously, I want to see her continue to succeed).

Plus, the fight scenes do live up to the movie's title.  While I mentioned some of my problems with them in terms of their context, the keep an exciting pace and display a lot of creativity.  I saw this on DVD, but I wish I could have seen it in a crowded theatre; you can bet there would have been some cheering

Overall:  While some of the controversy is legitimately disturbing, it won't entirely ruin anyone's enjoyment.  Kick-Ass still has some things worth rooting for

Final Rating:

3 out of 5

Agree? Disagree? Comment!