But if there's one thing that most diehard comics fans and nonreaders have in common, it's that we've had (at one point or another) our own superhero fantasy. I mean, who wouldn't want to be a superhero? I myself have had plenty of daydreams as a child (oh, what the hell, even NOW) where I don a colorful costume, fly across rooftops, and pummel bad guys, saving the world on a daily basis. But of course, we all know that in the real world, such extravagant adventures would be unrealistic.
And yet, Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) doesn't have such a pessimistic attitude. And in the uproarious, brutal, and ridiculously energetic comic book adaptation Kick-Ass, we see what happens when funnybook pipe dreams become a reality.
Dave is pretty much your usual Peter Parker archetype: he's a high school nerd, invisible to the opposite sex, especially his dream girl Katie (Lyndsey Fonseca), and he spends most of his time either hanging out with his equally nerdy friends (Clark Duke and Evan Peters), or whacking off at night to the image of his buxom English teacher.
But Dave has higher aspirations: tired of seeing no one take a stand against the everyday crime he witnesses in New York City, Dave decides to play out his heroic fantasies: he orders a green-with-yellow-piping wetsuit off the internet, gets a matching mask, arms himself with a billy club, and prowls the streets as the city's first real-life superhero: Kick-Ass.
However, the untrained and unskilled Dave learns the hard way that superheroics aren't that easy: on his first mission, Dave gets stabbed, struck by a car, and is put in the hospital. After getting metal plating in his body (and learning that the trauma gave him the inability to feel most pain), the recuperated Kick-Ass goes at it again, saving a man from a gang beating. Only this time, his exploits are caught on a cameraphone, which are quickly uploaded to YouTube, making Kick-Ass an overnight internet sensation.
This catches the attention of local mob boss Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong), who thinks that Kick-Ass is behind the recent murders of many of his underlings and drug dealers. D'Amico's unaware that the real culprits are actually the father-daughter duo of Damon and Mindy Macready (Nicolas Cage and Chloe Moretz), two lethal and highly resourceful vigilantes going by the codenames of Big Daddy and Hit-Girl. As superheroes both amateur and pro cross paths and become embroiled in the real and deadly world of the mob, and as D'Amico's nerdy son Chris (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) poses as a superhero called Red Mist to lure Kick-Ass into a trap, Dave realizes that he's truly way in over his head.
Based on the eight-issue Marvel/Icon miniseries by writer Mark Millar and illustrator John Romita Jr., Kick-Ass informs the audience from the start that this ain't their daddy's superhero movie. Both a loving homage and wicked satire of comic book movies and their conventions, Kick-Ass revels in its outrageously adult trappings, what with curse words flying left and right, blood and bullets filling every inch of the screen, and a crazed combination of brutality, pop-culture references, and an almost giddy tone of black humor. Simply put, if Quentin Tarantino directed Spider-Man, and received script help from Kevin Smith and Seth Rogen, the result would be Kick-Ass.
And Brit director Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake, Stardust) realizes that. We're practically told to leave our moral compasses at the door, and breathe in the Grand Guignol insanity presented before us. Vaughn co-wrote the screenplay with his Stardust scribe Jane Goldman, and although they made several changes from the source material (both cosmetic and substantial), the spirit remains. And like the comic, it plays on that very sense of fantasy and wish-fulfillment mentioned above.
And there was no better choice to represent our collective crimefighting fantasies than British actor Aaron Johnson (star of the upcoming young-John Lennon biopic Nowhere Boy). Johnson is terrific and believable as the lonely, dweebish dreamer who, despite his obvious lack of training or physique, decides to seize the day and become his own personal Spider-Man, even if he looks like a total doofus in that bright green wetsuit.
Christopher Mintz-Plasse, best known as Superbad's iconic McLovin', steps away from his Judd Apatow-induced notoriety and does a wonderful job as the equally lonely and duplicitous son of crime lord Frank D'Amico, played by Mark Strong (who apparently seems intent on stealing Ralph Fiennes' title as Hollywood's go-to guy for screen villains).
But the real showstoppers here are that of Big Daddy and Hit-Girl, the latter of whom is the film's breakout character and an inevitable source of controversy.
One-half Uma Thurman's Bride from Kill Bill and one-half Polly Pocket (as well possessing a four-letter-word vocabulary that would make a longshoreman with Tourette's blush), Moretz' Mindy/Hit-Girl is a pint-sized Punisher that will certainly take the audience by storm. From her "holy shit" introductory massacre of a roomful of drug dealers (a scene made all that more deliriously entertaining with the soundtrack inclusion of the theme song from "The Banana Splits"), to her making mincemeat of an army of Frank's goons, the character will truly be considered one of the coolest and most badass female movie heroes from here on out, and despite some worrywarts recently complaining about an 11-year-old girl slashing up bad guys and cursing like a sailor, the over-the-top and manic nature and context of the film will make the onscreen exploits much easier to swallow. It also helps that Moretz is a highly talented and natural actress and gives Hit-Girl a real sense of both maturity and bravado.
And don't forget Nicolas Cage. Mocked nowadays by some for being a paycheck actor who stars in shitty blockbuster movies, it's easy to forget that Cage can be an excellent actor, especially when he's playing batshit crazy (as last year's terrifically deranged Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans proved). Here, Cage is wonderfully demented as both the loving and doting Ward Cleaver-like father to Mindy, and as Big Daddy, a merciless Batman-lookalike vigilante who's got a mad-on for Frank and his operation. Mask on or off, Cage is an absolute hoot (especially when he, as Big Daddy, alters his voice to sound like Adam West).
Production values are topnotch across the board. Kick-Ass captures the candy-color palette of the comics, boasts a fantastic and eclectic soundtrack--whether it's Ennio Morricone, Elvis Presley, or a goofily funny scene where Kick-Ass and Red Mist boogie to Gnarls Barkley in the Mist's car-- and of course, the action scenes are marvelous to behold. Unrepentant in its intensity and bloodiness, the action set-pieces are highly creative and tough to forget, especially once Hit-Girl shows up.
Vaughn does stumble with pacing problems (especially in the film's second act, mostly in regards to Dave's bumbling attempts to gain Katie's attention), as well as an inconsistent tone, where some scenes don't know if it wants to parody the superhero genre, or genuinely ape it.
But those are minor quibbles in the end. While the adventures of traditional superheroes like Spider-Man, Superman, and the X-Men are anchored by family-friendly morals and subtexts, such a concept is nonexistent for Kick-Ass. As Dave says in voice-over late in the film, "with no power comes no responsibility". And for a film so highly inappropriate, bloody, profane, juvenile, and wildly entertaining, such a paraphrase couldn't be any farther from the truth.
Superpowered by a top-notch cast (with star-making turns for both Johnson and especially Moretz), tongue-in-cheek direction by Vaughn, and a gleeful disregard for all things moral and decent, Kick-Ass is an anarchic, funny, refreshing, and very adult postmodern superhero film for those who may still harbor those inner desires to throw on a cape and cowl. Literally proving, title-wise, that there's still truth in advertising, Kick-Ass does, well, just that.
Letter Grade: "A-"
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