Kick-Ass (2010)

I’m not really one to read comic books anymore but pretty much every super hero film that has ever graced our favorite movie houses’ screens have been adapted versions from their respected comic. Whether good wholesome family content like Archie or Care Bears to the graphic novels such as Sin City or The Spirit, comics have been the source for some very good and some quite bad film versions of themselves. I, personally, did not know that Marvel published a comic about an ordinary teenager with no said super powers or special skills of any kind who decides to become a self made super hero and call himself Kick-Ass. The graphic comic started in 2008 and was written with the intention of making it into a movie.


Aaron Johnson plays Dave Lizewski, your average run of the mill teen who lives in New York City and loves reading all sorts of comics with his three friends. The three of them are not the most popular group to say the least. They are actually considered geeks who get no attention from girls, play any sports or do anything other than hang out in a comic book café. Dave randomly asks them one day why no one has ever tried to actually become a super hero in real life. His question is met with negative responses from his friends who feel whoever tried such a thing would be dead in like 2 seconds. Despite what his friends’ attitude towards the matter was, he decides to try his hand at becoming one anyway. He orders a green and yellow wet suit off of the internet and arms himself with two batons before going through his own self-imposed “training”. Training which consists of trying to muster up the courage to jump from rooftop to rooftop, which he doesn’t succeed at and extensively trying to pump himself up by talking to himself in the mirror in his bedroom. Like Batman, his first chance at heroism comes in the form of two thugs attempting to break into a car. After a good laugh at the sight of him, they attack and mortally wound him. He spends quite a while in the hospital because of this and pleads with the Emergency Technicians not to tell anyone about his costume.

After many surgeries, he walks out of the hospital with a good portion of his skeleton replaced with metal and nerve endings that prevent him from feeling as much pain as he normally would. Because his police report stated he was found naked to keep his secret, a rumor begins in his school that he might have been raped and was actually a homosexual. This causes the girl of his dreams, Katie (Lyndsy Fonseca), to enlist him as her gay friend. Happy just to be noticed by her, he doesn’t correct her and they spend a lot of time together. Although he nearly died in his last outing as a super hero, he once again dons the green wet suit and sets out to right whatever wrongs he comes in contact in the streets of NYC, and he finds some. He takes on three guys while trying to protect a man from being attacked by them. A bystander walking by sees this, records it, and posts it on You Tube where Kick-Ass receives instant fame. During his travels, he encounters a super hero duo called Big Daddy (Nicholas Cage) and his daughter Hit-Girl (Chole Grace Moretz) who have their own agenda for stopping a major crime lord in the city, Frank D’Amico (Mark Strong), and whom are highly skilled at their occupation. They quickly discover Kick-Ass’s identity and warn him that he should be careful in his fight against evil.

Many movie goers expected this film to be family worthy material. I wouldn’t know why, it is rated R. The amount of profanity and graphic violence, particularly by Hit-Girl is by no accord meant for children. It is as well based on a graphic novel comic book. It stays true to its comic counterpart in every essence. With limbs flying here and there and thugs being exterminated in the goriest of ways, it earns every bit of the R rating it received. Hit-Girl, in my opinion, is the real star of the film, displaying feats no young child should ever attempt in real life. It is pretty farfetched to have a child that age do the things that she is doing but the way the action scenes are put together, it looks as real as something like that could ever get. This film caught some controversary by audiences for the usage of profane vocabulary by Chole Moretz as well but I don’t feel it’s really that big of deal. It isn’t the first time a child actor has been asked to repeat bad words from a script. Bobb'e J. Thompson cursed just as much, maybe more, in Role Models. In general the action scenes were all around well done and matched the special effects for a not well known super hero franchise.

Nothing special can be said about the acting, the main characters play teenagers or kids they way they should be played. The inclusion of narration provided by Aaron Johnson as Dave was a good way to play off of another super hero fave about a teenager called Spider-Man. Nicholas Cage’s Big Daddy had a peculiar similarity to Batman, he even sort of spoke like the original Batman played by Adam West. He too was highly skilled in fighting and weapons and was the one who trained his daughter, Hit-Girl. This film also had some comedy to it; much of it brought about by Chris D’Amico played by Christopher Mintz-Plasse. He played a more grown up and slightly cooler part than his past roles in Superbad and Role Models. Director Matthew Vaughn has already slated a sequel, Kick-Ass: Balls to the Walls, for a 2012 release if the Mayan calendar doesn’t expire us all by then.

This film is filled with enough goodies to keep you entertained and interested throughout. Smart remarks and near impossible fight scenes from Hit-Girl combined with the determination and inspiration that Kick-Ass divulges to others throughout the city keeps this tale moving on many different levels. I give Kick-Ass “3.5 amateur wannabe superhero’s out of 5”.

“You just contact the mayor's office. He has a special signal he shines in the sky; it's in the shape of a giant cock.”