I hate spoilers, but it's really impossible to explain what I loved and hated about this movie without them. So, here's your spoiler alert.
Think of Matthew Vaughn's new adaptation of Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.'s Kick-Ass comic as a two-sided coin. Two Face's coin from the Batman comics, perhaps.
On one side of the coin, we have the good aspects, the ones that elevate Kick-Ass above the realm of the Ghost Riders and Catwomans of the comics-to-film subgenre. On the other side, we have the bad, the stuff that makes us cringe and simply ask, "why?"
Kick-Ass is the story of Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson), a nerdy high school kid who one day decides to become a superhero. As his new alter-ego "Kick-Ass" gains popularity on YouTube, he gains notoriety in the world of organized crime as the mob suspects him of trying to bring down their operation. As it turns out, two other superhero wannabes, Hit-Girl (Chloe Grace Moretz) and her father Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) are the ones fighting the mob, and their fates inevitably become intertwined with that of Kick-Ass.
On the good side of the coin, we have Moretz and Cage. Simply put, Hit-Girl is the highlight of this movie. This foul-mouthed 11-year-old commits acts of violence that would make a serial killer blush, and it's this strange juxtaposition of youth and violence that carries the film (and, to be honest, the comic). Moretz, who shined in her small-ish role in (500) Days of Summer, is funny, vulgar, and surprisingly deep in her portrayal of Hit-Girl.
Cage also fares well in his role as Big Daddy. He plays the cheesy-but-deadly father role very well, and his Adam West impersonation is really funny.
That's all I can think of for the good side of the coin.
On the bad side, let's talk about the damn jetpack. In the final comic, Hit-Girl whips out a flamethrower and fries a bunch of mobsters. When Kick-Ass asks her where she got the weapon, she replies simply, "eBay." In the movie, Hit-Girl orders something on the Web, but we don't find out what it is until the end.
Hit-Girl gets beaten nearly to death during the final standoff with the mob, and at the last possible second, Kick-Ass enters the scene not with a flamethrower, but with a jetpack complete with dual Gatling guns. Violence ensues.
This is a classic case of trying too hard. Mr. Vaughn, we're already nerds. You don't need a jetpack to convince us that this is supposed to be one massive nerdgasm. While I do understand that creative liberties must be taken in adaptations like this, an 11-year-old with a flamethrower is far cooler than a fake-looking jetpack. Just because James Bond did it in Thunderball doesn't mean you have to do it too.
I know this is just one scene, but it's also the movie's climax, and it goes against everything Kick-Ass is supposed to be. It's supposed to be a satirical portrayal of what might actually happen if a kid decided to fight crime. The jetpack is not an in-joke or a wink-wink at fans; it's a transparent and desperate attempt to be cool, and it's not easy to overlook.
There are other offenses in Kick-Ass. The love story is worthless, and its outcome differs completely from what happens in the comic books. I don’t know why everybody loves Aaron Johnson; he isn’t horrible, but he isn’t God’s gift to the future of Hollywood, either. Hit-Girl's first person shooter scene only serves to further help the movie become exactly what it's satirizing.
Kick-Ass isn't necessarily an epic fail as a movie, but it is if you're a fan of the comics. It descends into Spider-Man 3 dance scene territory with the jetpack finale, and this only serves to set it further part from the quality and overall purpose of the comics.
The comic was fun above all else, not a masterpiece for the history books. That's what I wanted from the movie, but somehow it failed to deliver. If you want some cool action scenes, go catch a matinee of Kick-Ass. Just be happy there’s violence and profanity, because the movie would be nothing without those components. If you want something deeper, wait for July and save your ticket money for Inception. I wish I had done so.
P.S. Or, you could just go read the comic. Click here.
