Kick-Ass (2010)

Starring: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Chloë Grace Moretz, Nicolas Cage, Mark Strong, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Clark Duke, Evan Peters, Michael Rispoli, Omari Hardwick, Elizabeth McGovern, Yancy Butler, and Craig Ferguson
Grade: B-

Once a year, we must leave out a cup of hot chocolate with extra marshmallows out of respect for Big Daddy. It’s the least we can do.

Summary

Through narration, teenager Dave Lizewski (Taylor-Johnson) wonders why no one has ever gone as far as he did in becoming a superhero, despite all of us wanting to be one at some point in our lives. As he talks, some Armenian guy with mental health problems dressed as a superhero leaps off a skyscraper in an attempt to fly. Ultimately, the man kills himself, landing on a taxicab instead.

With this, Dave states his own superhero name is Kick-Ass.

Six months earlier, Dave is at a place in his life where he’s the last person you’d expect to become a superhero. There wasn’t anything wrong with him, but there wasn’t anything special about him either. He wasn’t into sports or math, nor was he a gamer. His only “superpower” is being invisible to girls. He’s not even the funny one in his three-man friend group consisting of Marty Eisenberg (Duke) and Todd Haynes (Peters). By his own admittance, Dave is usually just jerking off in his room, mostly to his English teacher Mrs. Zane (Deborah Twiss) but also literally anything else. One time, Zane even caught him looking down her shirt before she redirected his attention back to reading Hamlet. Still, he likes girls his own age too, especially Katie Deauxma (Lyndsy Fonseca). When he’s at his locker, Katie leans over and greets him with a “Hey gorgeous”, but it was meant for her friend Erika (Sophie Wu), not Dave. Dave misinterprets and greets her back until he realizes he misconstrued it. Embarrassed, he tries to play it off before leaving. Following this, Dave, Marty, and Todd are making fun of each other at lunch. Another group nearby plays with their soccer ball, and it’s knocked over onto their table, messing with their food. Also, Dave is sure to tell us that he doesn’t have a crazy backstory either, as his mom died from having an aneurysm in the kitchen out of nowhere during breakfast one day. The only thing he got from the 18 months since she passed is that life just goes on. Still, he has his dad (Garrett M. Brown).

One day, Dave is sitting with Marty and Todd at comic book store Atomic Comics and wonders why no one has ever tried to become a superhero. Marty thinks it’s impossible, but Dave doesn’t see someone putting on a mask and helping people as impossible. Todd doesn’t consider this a superhero. To him, a superhero has to have a power, like he’s stronger than everyone or can fly or something. Otherwise, the person he’s describing is just a hero. Marty doesn’t even give Todd this. He doesn’t think this person would be a hero but rather a psycho. Dave brings up Bruce Wayne not having powers, but Todd points out how he had expensive shit that doesn’t actually exist. Marty argues that if anyone tried it in real life, they’d get their ass kicked and be killed in a day. Still, Dave finds it weird that of all the people who love superheroes, no one has tried to become one. Just then, rich kid Chris D’Amico (Mintz-Plasse) pulls up to Atomic Comics. Dave feels bad for him, but Marty doesn’t because Chris comes from a wealthy family that gives him everything he wants. Dave brings up how Chris is always on his own, so Todd tells Dave to go talk to him and see if he wants to hangout. If Chris joins their friend group, no one will mess with them ever again. Dave doesn’t really want to talk to Chris, but they pressure him into doing it. Dave goes over to Chris, but Chris’s bodyguard tells Dave to fuck off. Afterwards, the three friends leave the comic book shop, and Todd comments how he would have kicked the bodyguard’s ass if he said that to him, which Dave knows isn’t true. Marty goes in the opposite direction, and Dave and Todd walk together through an alley. There, they get robbed for their phones, wallets, and even their comic books by the same two guys that have robbed them before. A man watches the whole thing from the window of his apartment but does nothing, which Dave sees. That night, Dave buys a skintight suit online that looks like it could be transformed into a superhero costume. Meanwhile at Frank’s Lumber Supplies, Tre (Randall Batinkoff) is being interrogated by Frank D’Amico (Strong) and his boys and is adamant that another guy came by, kicked everyone’s asses, and stole all the cocaine. Apparently, the man was dressed like a superhero. Frank doesn’t believe Tre since his mole with the Russians told a different story about how Tre sold the mole Frank’s cocaine and kept the money.

Tre denies this, but Frank compares the two stories and believes the Russian because it’s more likely. Frank details how his son Chris is in the car, and they’re about to go the movies. He’s not going to disappoint him. Because of this, Frank leaves Joe (Rispoli) in charge. They immediately go to torturing Tre when Frank exits the building. Frank joins Chris in the car, and Chris is annoyed because the movie will start in ten minutes, but Frank assures him they will only miss the trailers. He then tells the driver what snacks both of them want, so they don’t have to do it. When the two get to the movie theater to enter, Dave, Marty, and Todd leave the theater. In his narration, Dave comments that the comic books had it wrong. It didn’t take trauma, cosmic rays, or a power ring to make a superhero. It was really the perfect combination of optimism and naivety. Dave goes home and finds that his green and yellow superhero costume has been delivered. He tries it on and mimics fighting. Elsewhere in the city, Damon Macready (Cage) stands across from his daughter Mindy (Moretz) with a gun, as part of their training. Mindy is scared and asks if it’s going to hurt, and Damon admits it will but only for a second. Quizzing her, he asks how fast a bullet from a handgun travels, and she answers correctly that it’s more than 700mph. Damon explains that at the close range they are at for this training exercise, the force will take her off her feet, but it’s no more painful than a punch in the chest. She doesn’t like being punched in the chest either, but Damon assures her that she will be fine. Next, he shoots her directly in the chest and drops her. She reveals the bullet proof vest she was wearing and is completely fine. Damon explains that she now knows how it feels and won’t be scared when some junkie asshole pulls a gun on her in the future. Mindy jokes she wouldn’t be scared anyways, and he’s proud of her. Even so, he still wants to do it twice more before they go home. She’s only down if they go to the bowling alley and get ice cream after, so he agrees on the conditions that she doesn’t wince or whine. She agrees to it and excitedly talks about getting a hot fudge sundae before Damon shoots her again.

Following this, the two are eating their ice cream, and Damon asks if she’s thought about what she wants for her birthday. Mindy wants to know if she can have a puppy and a Bratz doll, and Damon is shocked and doesn’t know what to say. Mindy reveals she was just fucking with him and actually wants a benchmade model 42 butterfly knife. Relieved, he promises to get her two. The next day, Dave puts on his superhero costume and puts his school clothes over it to conceal it. In English class, he doesn’t pay attention. He just makes a concept drawing of how he will look as the superhero “Kick-Ass”. Dave admits there wasn’t a lot of crime fighting in those first few weeks, but it kept him busy. He uses the time to train. One day, he prepares himself to jump from the rooftop of a building to another but chickens out at the last second. Later, Dave is back in his regular clothes and finds the two criminals that robbed him earlier. Now, they’re trying to break into a car. They yell at Dave to leave, so he goes back into the alley, switches into his Kick-Ass gear, and confronts the two. He gets a solid hit on one guy, but the other man immediately stabs him. The two criminals then run away. Dave gets up and tries to walk across the street, but he’s hit by a car seconds later. The car stops, sees him, and drives off. Passed out, he’s taken to the hospital. In-between moments of consciousness, he tells the paramedic not to tell anyone about the costume. Elsewhere, Joe goes to Frank’s condo to greet him and his family. Apparently, there’s some sort of a problem that Joe alerts Frank to, so Frank excuses himself. Frank’s wife Angie (Butler) is annoyed but lets him go. Chris follows Frank and Joe because he doesn’t mind when Frank talks business and wants to start learning about everything, but Frank tells him to go back to his breakfast. Chris is mad on the account that he will be 18 in 8 months and storms off. Frank and Joe go to Frank’s private office, and Joe relays that their Russian mole said to him that Tre sold another 5 kilos to him at half price. Since Tre is already dead, they realize Tre was telling the truth about the superhero or that someone really did steal from Tre. Hearing this, Frank decides they need to invite the Russian over for a chat to see what’s really going on.

Meanwhile, Damon is painting a picture of Frank’s face in his office. His office is full of weapons hung up over all the walls like posters. Mindy walks in with breakfast to Damon’s surprise, as he was going to do the same for her since it’s her birthday. Even so, he gives her the two butterfly knives for her gift and she’s elated. He gives her another pop quiz right after, asking what the proper name for it is. She says it’s a balisong and it’s Filipino. She wants another quiz question, so he brings up the AR-15, asking it’s a smaller caliber version of what design. She answers correctly in that it was Eugene Stoner’s AR-10 and challenges Damon to give her a harder question. He asks her what John Woo’s first full-length feature was, and she correctly answers Tie Han Rou Qing (The Young Dragons) while playing with her gift. That night, Chris is in Frank’s office acting like he’s a crime boss, playing with his gun. Joe calls, so Chris interrupts Frank’s martial arts training to give him the phone. While Frank talks to Joe, Chris stays in the room and practices with his nunchucks. Joe tells Frank that they don’t have the vice, but they have an industrial microwave they can use. Frank starts flipping out because he doesn’t care, so Joe hangs up. Joe and the rest of the crew are interrogating the Russian, and he pleads ignorance to what happened because the man that sold the drugs says he was Tre. He didn’t know. Even so, they put the Russian in the microwave and set the timer for 5 minutes. Joe asks him again who sold their cocaine since it couldn’t have been Tre, but the Russian can’t hear what he’s saying from inside the microwave. Then, his body explodes from the pressure. Sometime later, Dave has recovered somewhat from his injuries and thinks the x-rays of all the metal plates inserted into his body because of the injuries are cool. Before they leave the hospital, Dave’s dad says that the police report said they found Dave naked and Dave didn’t remember why. His dad tries to ask if he was raped without actually saying it, but Dave dispels this and just says that the paramedics threw his clothes away in the ambulance because of the blood. Hearing this, his dad hugs him. Regardless, Dave was already back in school. Besides some messed up nerve endings, he was pretty good. At lunch, he can hear Katie and Erika talk about him before he sits down with Todd and Marty. The two mess with him and hit him because Dave can’t feel anything. When Dave is at his locker, Katie surprisingly approaches him and brings up how she hangs out at Atomic Comics with Erika and invites him to come by if he wants someone talk to. She’ll buy him coffee.

Todd and Marty can’t believe it, and neither can Dave, though he accepts it. Dave excitedly tells them afterwards, but they reveal to him that there’s a rumor floating around that he’s gay since he was found at the crime scene naked. Even so, Dave goes right back to superhero training and sets up a website for Kick-Ass. While in costume as Kick-Ass, Dave goes to look for a local lost cat and finds it near a billboard. He climbs up to grab it but falls and hits the ground. A guy who is being chased by three criminals runs and trips over Dave, and the three criminals start beating the guy down. Dave sees this as his moment, and he goes to help the lone guy by fighting off the three men. He tells a bystander to call the police, but the bystander goes inside a local coffee place right by the fight and tells everyone what’s happening outside. Everyone pulls out their phones and starts recording the fight. Eventually, Dave comes to a standstill with the three men once the leader pulls out a knife. Dave invites him to bring it on and points out that everyone is watching them. They run off, and the guy who was saved thanks Dave. The bystander comes out to ask who Dave is while the bystander records it, and Dave tells him that he’s Kick-Ass. The videos of Kick-Ass become an internet phenomenon. Even Todd and Marty see it on the news and love it. It becomes the most watched clip on the internet. Kick-Ass’s MySpace page reaches 16,000 friends and continues climbing while Dave’s MySpace only has 38 friends. Now, he has countless requests for help as Kick-Ass and his name starts to be marketed everywhere, especially in Atomic Comics. There are shirts, drinks named after him, and his costume is for sale at the shop. Apparently, there is a comic coming soon about him. On his monologue for The Late Late Show, Craig Ferguson even talks about him. Damon and Mindy are watching the program, and Mindy notes Kick-Ass’s popularity, but Damon isn’t impressed because he saw him get his ass kicked on the video footage. He suggests the superhero call himself Ass-Kick instead, which Mindy doesn’t find funny. Also watching the program from his house is Frank and his family. Frank thinks Kick-Ass will end up dead, but Chris gives him credit. He even says he would message him if he had a problem worth fixing.

Frank tells him he has 100 guys that can help him, but Chris sarcastically responds that he wouldn’t want to meddle in Frank’s business where he isn’t wanted. Dave responds to his emails and even has to turn down some requests because he’s so backed up. He sees Katie’s email about wanting to go for coffee though, and he accepts. Later, they meet up at Atomic Comics. Katie talks about how she’s just starting to get into comics but not really into the superhero ones. This includes the upcoming Kick-Ass one. Still, she talks about how she wouldn’t mind some of his help, however. She volunteers at the needle exchange, and she talks about this guy named Rasul (Kofi Natei) who has a rough upbringing. Before she gets into details though, she notes she is the one usually playing the role of therapist, so she appreciates the conversation. She says that she’s always wanted a friend like him and apologizes if it’s homophobic, confirming that she thinks he’s gay. He looks over at Todd and Marty, and they signal for him to go with it, so he does. He talks her into mailing Kick-Ass. Following this, Kick-Ass goes out to look for Rasul. Apparently, Katie doesn’t want the money back that she gave Rasul or an apology for the black eye he gave her. She just wants Rasul to understand they are through and to leave her alone. With this, Dave goes to Rasul’s apartment. He’s let in by the doorman after he mentions Katie’s name and goes inside to a group of guys and one woman on the couch next to Rasul, who’s playing video games. He tells Rasul to leave Katie alone, and there won’t be any problems. Rasul and his guys circle Dave and dare him to do something. Dave threatens to come back and break his legs if he doesn’t listen, but Rasul wants to fight now. He moves forward, so Dave tasers him in the forehead until Rasul’s other guys tackle Dave to the ground. Before Rasul can use his machete, he is stabbed through the chest by Mindy, who is dressed as her superhero alter ego Hit-Girl.

She kills every last person in the room and saves Kick-Ass. Dave frantically pulls out his taser and Hit-Girl makes fun of him for how gay-looking the weapon is. The doorman runs in with a knife while Hit-Girl explains to Kick-Ass that they’re on the same team. She doesn’t see the doorman coming. Thankfully, Damon, who’s dressed as his superhero alter ego Big Daddy, snipes the guy from afar. Through her earpiece, he reminds her that she is always supposed to have her back against the wall. Mindy collects the stacks of money from the room, puts them in a bag, and tells Dave to follow her, though she has to tell him not to use the front door. She leads him out of the fire escape and onto the roof. She introduces herself as Hit-Girl to him and points out Big Daddy who’s waiting for her on the opposite building. She runs and jumps onto the other building’s roof. She tells Kick-Ass to follow, but he’s too scared to attempt it and takes the fire escape back down. He goes home and realizes Hit-Girl and Big Daddy are the real deal. He’s nowhere near their level. Back at Frank’s place, Joe shows Frank a picture of the back of Big Daddy from Sal’s phone. Sal took the picture right before he died. Joe suggests that the guy from the picture is the “superhero nutjob from the TV”, Kick-Ass. Frank doesn’t believe one guy killed eight of his. Joe corrects him. It was 8 at Sal’s place and 4 at Rasul’s. If Joe’s right about this one lone guy doing all this damage, Frank thinks they’re going to look like the biggest pussies in all of New York. When Joe asks what he wants to do, Frank tells him that he wants Kick-Ass dead.

It looks like the confidence-shot Kick-Ass is going to get a real taste of what it means to be a superhero. Thankfully, Big Daddy and Hit-Girl will be there to help, albeit reluctantly.

My Thoughts:

In the midst of all Marvel and DC productions of the superheroes we know and love, Matthew Vaughn brought the smaller Marvel property in Kick-Ass to the big screen, a realistic take on the comic book genre. Though it does still include the over-the-top ultraviolence a Rated-R comic book adaptation should have, what separates Kick-Ass from other is its honest portrayal of a teenager wanting to become a superhero and realizing that it’s not as easy as it looks. In a world where no one has actual superpowers and REAL danger and REAL criminals can result in REAL death at any moment, Kick-Ass tries to balance this sense of realism with its love of superheroes and comic book fun. The hype surrounding certain aspects of it are a little overblown. Though it could be a testament to the time period in which it came out, it’s nowhere near as shocking or offensive as the media portrayed it to be. It could be us being desensitized to years of violence and vulgar language in film and television, but there was nothing here that was obscene as single moms made it out to be. At the same time, it’s not nearly as funny as nostalgia would have us remember it either. Still, there is a still a solid story told, and with a stylized production design that resembles a comic book or graphic novel, cool character arcs, awesome action, and amusement throughout to keep the pace up, Kick-Ass is another positive addition to the ever-expanding genre of superhero films.

The road taken by Dave Lizewski is a great premise for a superhero movie. Let’s take the superpowers out of the equation, the traveling between planets and dimensions, and the villains who are about world domination or whatever else. This is simply about a teenager who loves comic books and the idea of being a superhero for those in need. Though his friend Todd argues that a person who attempts such a path can’t be a superhero by definition because superpowers don’t exist, Dave doesn’t see it that way and neither do we. We can argue the semantics all we want, but a person who goes out of their way to spend as much time as possible in helping others and even fighting crime when the situation calls for it, while protecting their identity instead of basking in their own glory, is super. It’s not about the powers, just like how Dave narrates to the viewer. It really can be the combination of optimism and naivety, optimism in one’s altruistic intentions and enough naivety to not only believe it’s possible but also have the balls to attempt it. It’s a starting point for Dave’s character arc that brings out the kid in you. What if we became a superhero in our own city? What if we came up with a gimmick or a symbol and defended our town in a form of vigilante justice to help those in need? How come no one has tried it? Why is it only reserved for fiction when it technically is possible if the resources are put to the right things? Well, Kick-Ass exists as the answer to these questions and why it’s not the awesome, “good beats evil” situation that always works in the hero’s favor like how it’s written on the page for kids across the world to believe in wholeheartedly. Sometimes, you get your ass kicked, especially if you underestimate the job or the people you will face in it. Regularly, Dave walks into bad guy lairs and takes on criminals with minimal training at best. He practices here and there, but it’s by himself and he’s only practicing what he has more than likely picked up from film and television. Though it’s not explicitly expressed, his weaponry only consists of these dual nightsticks probably because he doesn’t want to take a life, aligning with the traits of guys like Batman and Superman.

However, this is where the difference between fiction and reality set in. If you’re not an adept fighter, you are carrying non-lethal weapons, and you’re facing off against criminals who know how to fight, are willing to kill, and carry lethal weapons on them, the game changes. Suddenly, the words of Jason Bourne ring true in that “This is real!”. This is the wakeup call the comic book dreamers need in realizing that the world they love is a fantasy for a reason. To be fair, Kick-Ass isn’t a bleak film with an outlook that works as a cautionary tale, but it’s authentic portrayal of how “superheroes” and “supervillains” would act in the real world does ring true enough to where the audience understands the point. There’s no better eye-opener than Dave mustering up the courage for the first time to put on his costume to threaten a couple of criminals and almost immediately being stabbed. As crazy as it sounds, it was really funny. It’s a great moment in teaching Dave a lesson. Again, this is all real. He can’t walk away from Rasual’s place without things coming back to him. To show him all the details he clearly looked past in becoming a superhero in the modern day, Big Daddy and Hit-Girl show up to his house and explain how the cartridge from his taser could have been traced right back to his house if Hit-Girl didn’t grab it and Big Daddy rerouted his IP address to find him from his website. These are the things you have to think about. It’s not just finding an unsavory character and telling him or her to stop it. It’s all the little details that have to be figured out too. Adding on to it is Dave being able to stand after being stabbed but getting hit by a car right after that. In typical big city fashion and showing the cynicism of the real world that we see much more often that the good samaritans in fiction, the driver stops, sees what he did, and drives off instead of helping Dave. So, on his first mission, he almost dies and gets life-long injuries of messed up nerve endings and metal plates that are still a part of him through Kick-Ass 2. In a weird way, this becomes part his own real “superpower” if you can call it that, as the dulling of nerve endings and metal plates surgically installed allow for him to take superhero-like damage from then on.

He’ll need it too.

During this series of graphic scenes, Dave is given the point of no return. Does this deter him from pursuing life as Kick-Ass, or does he see his survival as a way to push forward and get better at it? It’s a callback to the optimism and naivety that not only is used to make a superhero great but what makes Dave himself great. He’s completely outmatched and inexperienced, but he has this attraction in wanting to make Kick-Ass someone who people can depend on, even if he’s risking his life every day moving forward. That is heroic. Another intriguing point about the genre that the screenplay raises is Dave coming to the realization of why superheroes only exist in comic books and why people don’t risk their lives for strangers. It’s because Dave finally has found something to live for, and consequently something to lose. It changes his whole perspective on the superhero construct, but it’s so good of a point that it’s hard for the story to get past. It’s a movie-stopper that could easily be the ending of the film and the adventures of Kick-Ass right then and there. Dave even admits that once he promised Katie that his days as Kick-Ass were over, he hardly missed it at all. It’s not until he checked his website to see Red Mist’s constant messages that led him to put the costume back on. It was just curiosity. This why Dave’s character arc becomes a mixed bag, as him realizing that it’s not really worth it doesn’t align with who Dave wants to be, thinks he is, or the audience wants him to be. Really, he’s kind of over the idea before the third act. The only reason he gets involved in the climax is out of guilt at that point and rightfully so. Still, his heart isn’t in it after realizing who he put in danger, regardless of how things turned out. By the end, he acknowledges the legacy that the legend of Kick-Ass gives to the world, but it’s hard to see where the protagonist himself lies on all the subjects he brought up while trying to become a superhero. Despite being the namesake of the movie, we’re still unsure of Kick-Ass. The narrative just didn’t do a good enough job in proving Hit-Girl couldn’t have succeeded on her own despite her saying it to influence him in coming with nor did it show Kick-Ass being worthy of his legacy as the star of the franchise in the first place.

It’s a shame because his part of the story is written better and Aaron Taylor-Johnson is great as the lead. Hit-Girl is right that Kick-Ass has potential, but does he even want it anymore? Does he really care about what he started, or was a girlfriend all he really needed? When Hit-Girl says she can take care of herself, we believe her. If Kick-Ass goes on a mission by himself, we’re still questioning whether he can do it alone because he still hasn’t learned how to properly fight. This is a major plot point in Kick-Ass 2 too, as he tries to get better in his role as a superhero. Here however, it’s downplayed, so we just believe in his unbridled bravery, along with his guilt to make up for what he costs Hit-Girl.

Though it’s mostly escapism in its action, the visceral scenes of violence in reminding the viewer at how real this can get are well-placed and garners an effective reaction because of it, like Joe and all the mobsters beating the absolute dogshit out of Kick-Ass and Big Daddy on camera for the world to see in a potential public execution. Through narration, Dave starts to think about his own death and everything he would be leaving behind like Katie, his dad, or how he never learned how to drive or find out what happened on Lost. In the midst of the cartoonish, over-the-top comic book action involving Hit-Girl gunning down bad guys and pulling out crazy martial arts techniques to take them down, director Matthew Vaughn throws in the darker showcases of violence in the middle to shock but also bring the viewer back to a ground level to where it begs us to question, how can they get out of this? It’s some of the best elements of Kick-Ass. On the other side of the coin, we start to see the development of a teenage villain, or the reality of being a ruthless mobster. With Chris D’Amico, he craves being a part of his father Frank’s business. He knows what Frank does and wants to be a part of it. He thinks he understands the darker aspects of it, but he really doesn’t. He only sees the glamorized side of it, as most of us who watch too many movies do. It’s not until Chris’s plan as Red Mist works where he’s able to trap Kick-Ass and Big Daddy to be taken by Frank’s guys where the reality sets in, and he is given a moment to reflect and make a decision on if this is truly for him. He stresses to Frank how Dave wasn’t part of the deal, as he started to bond with Dave as Kick-Ass. However, cokehead Frank puts his foot down. This is his business. If he wants to be a part of it, sit down, shut up, and watch. They had to send a message, so no one else tries anything to meddle in their affairs. Chris, who wanted to be a bad guy this whole time, tries to tell Frank that none of this is fair. Just like that, Frank reiterates a point we all know in that life isn’t fair. This is reality, and it’s Chris’s eye-opener, setting him on his bumpy character arc that continues to develop in Kick-Ass 2.

If you want to be the villain, you have to go deep. Otherwise, you can’t be taken seriously and could be taken off the throne. As soon as the weakness shows, the hero will exploit it and vice versa. It’s a lesson both teens learn.

Going on that note, there is a lot of humor involved to keep things light-hearted and different like Chloë Grace Moretz’s Mindy being foul-mouthed by calling people cunts, making fun of Kick-Ass’s “gay little taser”, or how Hit Girl’s and Big Daddy’s signal is in the “shape of a giant cock”. To this day, I’m not sure what the uproar was about regarding Moretz’s star-making role as Hit-Girl. It was funny, it fit the time period it came out and the style and tone of the movie, and her warped personality and hard-nosed personality fits the character of a daughter who knows nothing but her father Damon’s life-long teachings of killing, preparing to be attacked, and vengeance to those who took his wife and her mother. For her to be a sweet little girl who kills would be too unbelievable as a night and day transition. Making her this shit-talking girl who enjoys what she does, since it’s all she knows, makes her a fun character and Moretz endears with every scene she’s a part of. She makes the Kick-Ass franchise what it is and Moretz herself gives a performance akin to an acting veteran with full understanding of why her character is the way she is, and why it’s not just a funny trait but rather who she is. Clearly, some critics didn’t understand that and blew it all out of proportion, but it shouldn’t surprise anyone. It’s something they do all the time. Plus, her relationship with her father is really sweet. It’s twisted because of the circumstances, but the chemistry between Cage and Moretz is loving and heartfelt. It’s why we breathe a sigh of relief during Hit-Girl’s attempt to save Big Daddy and Kick-Ass during the awesome, slow-motion, flickering light-filled action sequence (“Shows over motherfuckers!”). The juxtaposition of the beatdown they take to her appearance literally makes you say “Thank God” to yourself. Though some may take Marcus’s side on Damon “brainwashing” Mindy and ruining her childhood, the reality is that it doesn’t matter. She loves her dad, and the scenes in which we get to see how close they are, despite the insane lives they lead, are palpable in the love they share.

It’s like when she admits the bullets hurt more this time around, prompting Damon to laugh and admit it’s because he used low velocity rounds during training (“You’re the kindest daddy in the whole world”).

As a well-documented Nicolas Cage fan, his choices in his performance as Big Daddy/Damon don’t fully translate. He seems to be trying things with Big Daddy with a stilted way of speaking, reminiscent of William Shatner as James T. Kirk, he throws in some of Adam West’s Batman at other times despite looking like Christian Bale’s Batman (“Hit-Girl, back to headquarters!”) and then has moments of regular Cage as Damon. However, he throws in odd things like speaking in a southern-like voice and referring to Mindy as “child” too. It’s all over the place. His star power helps the movie and strengthens the supporting story, as well as solidifies Hit-Girl’s journey and sets her up well for the sequel, but the performance itself is questionable. With that being said, when he has to get serious, Cage nails it, especially in his argument with Marcus following Marcus reading Damon’s comic book about his backstory with Frank, and Damon refusing Marcus’s words accusing Damon of brainwashing his daughter. This is another interesting theme explored in Kick-Ass that doesn’t get enough credit. If the topic was never addressed, we would not think anything of Damon training his daughter Mindy to become a superhero and a killer, with a focus on burning down Frank D’Amico’s operations until everyone is dead. In a movie like this, it’s par for the course. It’s the superhero origin story we’ve grown accustomed to. However, the levelheaded Marcus, Damon’s former partner when Damon was a cop, brings up some valid points. On top of the usual “killing the bad guy won’t bring your wife back” criticism of vigilante justice that we always get in a revenge thriller, he lambasts Damon’s decision to bring Mindy into it. His way of parenting Mindy and coaching her to focus entirely on this life has warped her entire outlook on life, as these ever-important formative years have her seeing everyone as a suspect or an enemy who may try to attack, to enter any room with suspicion or caution, to not trust anyone, and to have an encyclopedic knowledge on weapons, war, and any history related to it, including John Woo’s filmography apparently. We know Damon and Mindy are the good guys, and Damon’s thirst for vengeance is justified once his backstory and connection to Frank are revealed, but Marcus’s accusations of Damon brainwashing Mindy in seeing the world through his eyes of despair, vigilante justice, and mass murder can’t be ignored.

Even if Mindy is really good at it and seems to enjoy it, it’s not the life for a kid, or is it? Can she be the exception? Considering her value to the third act of the movie and the sequel in general, the viewer can take in both arguments and ponder these questions while also enjoying the entertainment of Mindy dealing with this philosophical problem of her upbringing through both movies until she does find her calling. Yes, Marcus is right that Damon owes her a childhood, but Damon is also right that Frank is the one who owes her. Despite being a comic book film, it’s not as black and white as a comic book. Kick-Ass raises a lot of real questions for the superhero genre and plays a lot with the gray area to present the issues involved without being too heavy and negative to detract the comic book fan.

The biggest disappointment of Kick-Ass stems from the comedic aspects of it. It does have humor and has a light tone outside of the action sequences, but the replay value of the humor is nonexistent, with two of the few notable exceptions being Dave’s dad telling him he looks tired because he doesn’t know about Dave’s secret life and Joe agreeing with Chris on using “Tony” as bait saying, “Yeah, fuck Tony. He’s a scumbag”. For some reason, I thought that was hilarious. Even so, considering the loads of examples of high school movies to look at for inspiration, this element of the movie was underwhelming. It was well cast, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson fits the mold of nobody Dave who sets off the sequence of events, but it just never reaches the level of comedy you’d expect. A big part of the second act has his crush in Katie thinking he’s gay because of the rumor that he was found naked at the crime scene where he was stabbed and hit by a car. Naturally, we know he had his Kick-Ass costume on and told the driver not to tell anyone about it, but this spirals into everyone thinking he’s gay. His dad even thinks he was sexually assaulted until he dispels this. Though I don’t doubt the rumor in a high school environment turning this into a reality, it doesn’t make any sense for Dave to go through with it and play up the rumor. Even if Katie goes out of his way to talk to him because she thinks he’s gay and needs a friend, there’s no benefit to him going through with such a lie. Why do his friends sell him on this being a good idea? If they did it as a joke just to mess with him and it goes too far, it could be funny. However, for the collective to decide this is somehow the best way to go about things instead of Dave just trying to talk to this girl more to establish something makes zero sense. For Marty to tell Dave the longer he waits in telling her the truth the worse it will get is fucking asinine too because he was the biggest proponent of this moronic idea!

Dave’s ultimate goal of getting close to Katie by acting as her non-threatening gay best friend until the time is right to reveal that he’s straight, hoping to God she doesn’t flip out on him for everything he was allowed to see (he puts self-tanner on her naked body at one point) and was told in confidence under the pretense that he was gay is more unbelievable than actually becoming superhero. In addition, there’s no logic to it whatsoever. There’s no way taking this avenue would work out the way it did. Actually, I was dreading the inevitable moment when the truth comes out. Even if it was hard to buy that Katie is able to get over it in one seconds-long conversation, skipping to them eventually becoming a couple was the right choice because bogging down the action anymore with this dumb wrinkle in the narrative would have becomes less important as time moves on. It was one of those rare examples of a “Fuck it” type of solution that was totally the right call.

Regardless, the action sequences are great fun, the production design and detailed transitions and certain scenes that look like a comic book are cool choices by director Matthew Vaughn to cover every aspect with his passion for the superhero genre. Each superhero alter ego’s character design was distinctive and highly memorable, and each had their moment to make their mark in the franchise. For example, Big Daddy’s Batman-like infiltration of Frank’s supply store, taking the place and everyone inside down went under the radar since all the attention of the movie went to Hit-Girl, but it was badass. It was also just cool to see Nicolas Cage get a chance to be a superhero, something we all need surely. There are also a lot of crowd-pleasing sequences like all the emotional conversations between Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl about the reality they live in, family, and how being a superhero has affected them in different ways. It’s the biggest highlight of Kick-Ass and the driving force of Kick-Ass 2. These two young stars were ready for the spotlight. That much is clear. In addition, the satisfaction stemming from the wild, old school, shoot ’em up climax while Elvis Presley’s “An American Trilogy” is played over it was a great way to end the jet pack-fueled madness.

*Question, how would the public know that a Kick-Ass impersonator was killed if they don’t know his identity? It’s plastered on the news after Frank kills the random guy in broad daylight and shoots another, but how would anyone know, at least at first, that this wasn’t Kick-Ass?*

When we see someone in trouble, we wish we could help but we don’t. This would be okay if the heroes and villains only existed in comic books, but the problem is that the bad guys are very real. At times, they run unopposed. Watching Dave become Kick-Ass because of his love for comic books and wanting to help people, and subsequently seeing how much of a nightmare the career path can be, is an entertaining one to watch unfold. With a great cast, a lot of fun characters to watch develop and how they affect each other because of Dave’s decision to become a superhero, and Matthew Vaughn’s fully realized production value and love of comic books felt throughout the movie, Kick-Ass does a good job at selling its Rated-R mess as an alternative to the superhuman superheroes we discuss daily. The screenplay does leave a lot to be desired though, as it brings up loads of compelling topics for the characters and the viewers to ponder over but doesn’t really deliver on any of them before getting back to the fun parts of the movie. Plus, it’s not as funny as its remembered. Still, strong enough performances by Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Chloë Grace Moretz make the movie a fond memory of 2010 that leaves just enough interest in the viewer to where they wouldn’t mind seeing a sequel.

Of course, they got one.