KICK-ASS

KICK-ASS definitely kicks ass. Ok, I got that out of the way. But in all seriousness, the movie lives up to its title. From the opening scene to the ending credits, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I'll even go as far as saying it's probably my favorite comic book movie yet. Well, it's in my top 5 with IRON MAN, X-MEN 2 and THE DARK KNIGHT. And what's so great is that it's sort of an anti-comic book movie.

KICK-ASS is everything normal comic books aren't, yet it's the best of what they are too. The lead character is just average. Everything about him is ordinary. He doesn't have a tragedy that lead him to his hero ways, he's not popular, he's not even really noticed in any way positive or negative. As he says, he "just exists." The only reason he got into the super hero business is because he wondered why nobody did it before. And when he tries, he finds that he gets in WAY over his head. His first attempt nearly gets him killed. However, luckily for us, he's persistent.

It starts out fairly realistic. It does seem for a while that this could be what could happen if someone tried this in real life, but slowly gets more and more outrageous. Yet with as over the top it gets, it never goes too far and crosses over into exploitation levels. But that doesn't mean it doesn't hold back on the violence. Oh boy, is this movie is damn bloody violent. It's unforgivingly violent. It's the type of violence that some will find extremely entertaining and others will turn away from in disgust. For example, you got an 11 year old girl brutally and mercilessly killing people with a double sword staff, hand guns and butterfly knives.

The action is well filmed. One of my favorite fights is the first successful fight when Kick-Ass saves a guy from 3 gang members. It looks very real and the music choice is very interesting, yet works incredibly well. All the action is filmed so you can see what's going on with the exception of one scene where it's purposely too dark to see and has other visually obscuring pieces to convey the feeling of the bad guys. There's even a small bit that makes that first person scene in DOOM look pathetic. And all the music for every scene was great. Some weird choices, but they all work.

Along with great action is great comedy. The movie is a satire after all. It's a comic book movie satirizing comic book movies. But it's got a lot more to it than just being a comic book spoof. The dialogue is hilarious, great physical and visual comedy. And what's probably my favorite jokes is just kind of thrown in there in the final act. It's kind of hard to say what it is without spoiling it, but it's definitely something that everyone thinks about but never really bothers to mention.

What really makes this movie work is that the characters are all fleshed out and you truly care about them. While Kick-Ass's real world self, Dave, is just average, you can relate to him and you want him to succeed even when you think he's an idiot for doing what he does. Big Daddy and Hit-Girl you first see as just bad asses, then when they do a really cool comic book flash back (they tell the flash back in comic book frames with a narration by Big Daddy (Nic Cage) ) and you get become attached to them. And while Mark Strong plays the bad guy on a stereotypical level, it works. And in the final act, you really get a sense for how evil this guy really is.

With all the characters working so well, there becomes a point where Kick-Ass becomes more of a secondary character in a sense. Hit Girl definitely steals the last 30 minutes of the movie. When you first meet her you completely see how bad ass she is, but in that final leg of the film, her bad assery just sky rockets past any super hero around. And with her at such a young age, it could be both good and bad. It is almost a shame how bad ass she is with how young she is. But it's not exactly a completely negative thing. I guess it's kind of like toothless in HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON being such a desired pet. As much as you want one, you just can't have it. (I almost want to delete that analogy for obvious reasons, but I'm just going to leave it)

There was a point near the end where it seemed to go against it's own message and takes a conventional turn, but when I think about it, I really wouldn't have liked it to have gone any other way. I didn't read the comic, but I did read a sum up of how it plays out, and I probably would have been upset if the movie took that direction.

KICK-ASS is sitting right now at the top of my movies for 2010, and I'm sure it'll stay in the top 10, maybe even the top 5 of the year. It's wrong in so many ways, but all in the right way. It's a fresh comic book movie and everything about is done with near flawless precision. It's even got a great ending that sets it up to continue, but has that full circle closure for us to be completely satisfied with the one serving. Careful though, while filling, it has a strong kick to it.

Thanks Tonko, I was wondering about this movie. It looked okay, but reminded me of some of the younger gen superhero movies like Shark Boy and Lava Girl. I wasn't sure that I would like it.

Eclipse wrote:Thanks Tonko, I was wondering about this movie. It looked okay, but reminded me of some of the younger gen superhero movies like Shark Boy and Lava Girl. I wasn't sure that I would like it.

oh no. It's more of a "mix of SUPERBAD and SPIDERMAN with a little BLANK MAN thrown in."

Ya! I love all those comic book movies, I wouldn't have ever guess that it was that type of movie from the previews! I am actually excited about it now.