movies: kick-ass

Kick-Ass is violent and vulgar and cheesy and over the top and realistic and excessive and pitch-perfect.

Kick-Ass lives up to its name!

In related news: I have a new celebrity crush.

Tonight isn't a scheduled movie night, but I woke up this morning with the desire to play hooky from work and go to the movies. I didn't... but I decided to go and see Kick-Ass after work instead.

Sweet superheroes, I'm glad that I did.

I was slightly unsure about it going in... not about the violence and the profanity, I mean please, I own Kill Bill and most of Kevin Smith's movies, so those things don't bother me. I do however, have a deep and abiding dislike for Nicolas Cage, and I wasn't sure whether I would enjoy the movie because of that. But you know what... he wasn't bad... annoying, yes... but not bad, especially as Big Daddy where he's essentially channelling Adam West.

But the stand-out for me, as well as my new celebrity crush... Aaron Johnson as the titular unsuper superhero.

And is it weird that I'd prefer him to keep the Kick-Ass suit on? Although there was that one scene with him in his underwear...

Other than looking hot in the green "wetsuit" (and I'm sorry, that doesn't look like any wetsuit I've ever seen), he does a fantastic job as this everyday guy who turns himself into a real life superhero. Without giving anything away, he goes from this dorky kid looking for a lost cat, to an actual kick ass hero. And you believe him the whole way.

In a way it's almost a shame that Chloe Moretz as Hit Girl, and by association Nicolas Cage as Big Daddy, didn't get their own movie. Their dynamic is so completely screwed up, bordering on actual insanity, that it would have been nice to explore that a little further... the "how did they get to this place" is only touched on in general terms and I would have liked to know more. But then that's the mark of a great movie/story... give you enough so that you understand and feel for the characters, but still leave you asking "what about...".

Personally the character that doesn't completely work for me is Christopher Mintz-Plasse's Red Mist. I didn't mind him as the regular person, but once he adopts his superhero identity it just felt a little m'eh to me.

The same goes for Kick-Ass's friends... okay, technically they're Dave's friends and they don't know about Kick-Ass... but whatever. They're good at the start of the movie, but then once Dave turns into Kick-Ass they essentially become comic relief and don't really add that much to the movie.

Actually the villains also felt kinda m'eh... yes, I know they're necessary for a superhero movie, you gotta have a bad guy, but Mark Strong was kind of a bad video game boss... you fight your way to him through all the goons and underlings and whatnot, and he doesn't really feel all that threatening. Brutal, yes... threatening, so-so.

All in all though, its a kick-ass movie!

yani's rating: 4 butterfly knives out of 5