Kick-Ass

Kick-Ass was a series of stories set within the comic-book universe invented by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. in 2008 (patented as Millarworld), which followed the story of a teenage boy throwing himself into the lion’s den of crime fighting escapades by getting involving himself up with a father-daughter vigilante duo and an all-powerful crime family. The comics highlighting these characters originally published by Marvel and eventually Image Comics, proved successful enough that director Matthew Vaughn (who was also instrumental in the creation of the comic) was willing to turn it into a movie before the first volume was even fully finished. Said first volume (titled Kick-Ass – The Dan Lizewski Years) was altered and retooled into a movie in 2010, with Vaughn as the director and even featuring well-known actors like Chloë Grace Moretz and Nicholas Cage, who feel like great choices to match alongside these comic’s graphic yet humorous and satirical tone. With enough solid tooling, this could’ve been a solid film, but the results prove to be anything but. In a realistic environment where superheros are only a thing of fiction, a nerdy teenage boy named Dave (played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson) wishes to become a masked vigilante and fight crime on the streets like the heroes in his comic books, but after actually committing to this pipe dream, quickly discovers the serious dangers that come with the territory, which includes taking several beatings from thugs he’s ill-equipped to face off against. After one of his heroic endeavors is filmed and he suddenly becomes an internet sensation, he gains the attention of two masked vigilantes; Big Daddy (played by Nicholas Cage) and his daughter, Hit Girl (played by Chloë Grace Moretz). Both are currently working on a plan to take down the leader of a crime boss, Frank D’Amico (played by Mark Strong) and asks Kick-Ass if he wants to help them do so. Stuck in the loop now, with actual criminals gunning for his head and with D’Amico’s son, Chris (played by Christopher Mintz-Plasse) trying to form a bond with him in order to sway him to the other side, Kick-Ass needs to fulfill his initial wish and become a superhero to stop this crime boss for good. For something that claims to be a darkly comedic portrayal of superhero satire, this material feels old-fashion, predictable, and marginally unfunny, which follows into the film itself.  Although a cult classic with critics and audiences being pleased with the results, this film contains underwhelming commentary, a juvenile sense of humor that is rarely ever funny, a hypocritical stance on its messaging and action, and unlikeable characters.

To give this movie and the comic the benefit of the doubt, superhero satire was not as commonly showcased in media as it was during this time, and the idea of presenting a story with a very archetypal framework in a more grizzly and vulgar manner, does have merit as there are a lot of things to contemplate and call out when it comes to the genre. However, not only was the film (as well as the comic) released during 2010 (a time when comic book stories had already become to evolve past the basic framework and tried to be taken a little more seriously), but just from a basic writing perspective, it isn’t very creative or interesting satire regardless and just comes across as lazy. Satire takes more than just basic mockery to work, but it requires a sense of awareness of the tropes and being able to unpack them in a unique and fitting manner, but this story isn’t clever with what it is highlighting, but rather just exposes some hard truths in a very dull manner (The biggest and arguably only point is that ”being a superhero involves extreme violence”, and nothing much else). Various other Marvel and DC stories have tackled complicated themes and tough emotional dilemmas before whilst still retaining their personality, Image Comics already had a catalogue of inventively dark stories with a comic book twinge like The Walking Dead, Invincible, and Spawn, and superhero satire is so prevalent in today’s society that its arguably more common than the traditional route, making this feel even more basic and redundant. Even removing the commentary angle, this movie is just a bland story without any sense of fun, creativity, or freshness attached. The scripting by Vaughn and his frequent collaborator Jane Goldman, isn’t that engaging or interesting, most of the lines are either incredibly childish, blandly vulgar or lazily messed (all of which add nothing but making things more irritating), the directing has Vaughn’s usual components but not played up to a fun degree, and the movie is uncomfortably brutal and thoughtlessly mean-spirited, to the point where it becomes to unpleasant to watch after a while.

The characters (whether intentionally or not) all feel like carbon-copy alternatives to already existing characters from comic book franchises like Spider-Ma and Batman, but instead of dissecting these characters in a new and interesting way, it just makes them more basic than the original portrayals. The movie proudly proclaims again and again that its environment is way more realistic and genuine than that of a comic book (while simultaneously involving a lot of off-the-walls action and set pieces, so that alone is massively hypocritical) and the characters need to reflect that by being more authentic, openly flawed and disturbed in a manner that would be expected of the circumstances whilst still being charming in their own rights, but most of them can barely reach being likeable. Dave as a character in this is nothing but a pain, and only manages to be a latex-wearing punching bag for the whole movie instead of someone you want to see improve. With his archetype being so basic, the movie wants to highlight the naivety and showcase how this fantasy would get him killed, yet the film is so inconsistent with how badly he gets damaged throughout the movie, that it becomes hard to understand what they want to even say.  His actions aren’t interesting or fulfilling enough to make people root for him, Aaron Taylor-Johnson is not strong enough to lead this movie, and his personal life is equally as bland and unimaginative, so there is nothing to grab onto with this role at all. Most of his supporting characters are also pretty bad despite housing some underground talent (how is Evan Peters the one getting wasted in a superhero picture?), and it’s not like the villainous side is any better, with both Mark Strong and Christopher Mintz-Plasse both being pretty pathetically boring threats to go up against. On the flip side, Hit Girl is one of the few shining spots of this movie as she truly feels like she captures everything that can and should work about this premise. Her backstory is pretty messed-up and effectively delivered as seeing such a small child taking part in these kind of situations with such a foul-mouth is funny in a certain light but is appropriately acknowledged as cruel and scarring. Her character is more engaging and interesting, Chloë Grace Moretz is one of the few actors who actually nails the tone of the story pretty well, and considering how awful the lead is as a main focus, it really feels like she should’ve been the focus of this movie. Ironically, Nicholas Cage is strangely mishandled in this movie, despite the idea of him being a Batman-esque vigilante seemingly writing itself, it’s a little disappointing.

The look of the movie seems to capture the visual style of the comic without for the most part, having to go fully overboard with highlighted graphics, text bubbles or anything drastically noticeable. It might not have the most distinctive look, but the colors, costume design by Sammy Sheldon, and overall production design by Russell De Rozario, Sarah Bicknell, Joe Howard and John King is one of the few components of this story that feels like it helps give it a little bit of an identity. The very bright vibrant colors on the multiple superhero attires and the locations they travel to alongside the unclean filter the movie has makes everything reel rusty, worn and pretty ugly in a good way, it’s a smart way of adopting a bleak and oppressive atmosphere without needing to sacrifice color and lighting, and if anything over saturates the project in it to the point of being uncomfortable, it is pretty smart. The action is also fairly well done as well for the most part. Most of the fights on the street are fittingly portrayed as very ”street-level” and have a clumsiness to them that does get a point across, and they wouldn’t be too bad if the editing for these moments by Pietro Scalia, Jon Harris and Eddie Hamilton wasn’t so terribly shaky and rapid. The climax is also a bit of a mixed bag as although it offers up some fun stunts and an over-the-top scenario, it kind of goes against the whole point of the movie and provides for a wildly theatrical closing point that feels in line with a lot of traditional comic book stories.

Kick-Ass wants to pretend it’s a revolutionary story about challenging the boundaries of what a superhero story would be like in real-life, but instead proves to be nothing but an outdated bland formula that tries to parade violence and harsh language as ‘’realistic’’. True satires know that to properly make fun of something, it needs to understand what it’s mocking so that it can dissect the pros and cons of these elements, and this story fails to realize that. It feels like the comic is more focused on just doing the bare minimum when it comes to mocking something traditionally superhero-like, which isn’t nearly as entertaining as plenty of other comic book material that has done this already in their own words. They understand to point realistic flaws and issues in their comic-book worlds because it creates a believable world with fantastical people, and that balance is far more interesting and even far more realistic than what this movie presents. The Boys, Watchmen, and even Deadpool are more likely to provide a more realistic satirical approach at how to view superheros in a new light. A cult following for many, but doesn’t have enough good to back it up, as put by Nicholas Cage himself, Kick Ass seems to only be good at getting his ass kicked.