Kick-Ass Review-Written By Kelsey Zukowski

Starring: Aaron Johnson, Chloe Moretz, Nicholas Cage, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Lyndsy Fonseca, Mark Strong
Directed By: Matthew Vaughn
Written By: Jane Goldman (screenplay), Mark Millar (comic series)
Grade: B+

The highly awaited Kick-Ass is a funny and fresh teen comedy with highly stylized comic book action and some far gorier fight sequences and deaths than you typically get in super hero movies. It’s more about the average guy than any other super has as here our heroes don’t even have super powers or special abilities. This is part of its appeal, offering some great laughs as limitations are tested and giving us a character we can really relate to. I haven’t read the comics but what I understand the films follows them pretty closely. The only major plot point changed is that our hero gets the girl. I think this was actually a good change, because why wouldn’t we want our underdog hero to win one for himself?

Dave Lizewski (Johnson) has wanted to be a superhero all of his life. He has the costume and seeks to stop crime and help those in need. However, he finds himself chickening out. One day, when he witnesses a few guys breaking in to a car, he becomes “Kick-Ass”. He manages to harm them, but he also is severely injured and ends up in the hospital, breaking many bones. Now that he has metal plates all throughout his body this gives him a shield, the ability to endure a bit more than most would. This enables him to give Kick-Ass another try. He saves a guy being beaten on by 3 drug dealers. The fight is caught by many onlookers and ends up being the new big thing on YouTube, making Kick-Ass’s Myspace page equally popular. People begin sending in requests, asking for Kick-Ass’s help. The person he is really interested in helping though is Katie (Fonseca). He is shocked when she starts talking to him at school and soon after realizes this is because she thinks he’s her gay best friend. He doesn’t bother correcting her since he’s liked spending so much time with her.

Kick-Ass sends Katie’s drug dealer a message to leave her alone, which doesn’t go over too well. His men and him end up dying when much more experienced heroes, Hit Girl (Moretz) and Big Daddy (Cage) help out. Their goal is to bring down Frank D’Amico (Strong), a mob boss and his entire organization, seeking revenge for Big Daddy’s late wife. Frank begins to notice that Kick-Ass is the one responsible for killing all of his men and goes out on a man hunt; not only to kill him but to make an example of where being a superhero gets you. His son (Mintz-Plasse) who desperately longs for his father’s approval and to be a part of his business uses his comic book knowledge to befriend Kick-Ass as Red Mist, only to turn him over to his father.

The acting was top notch, giving us some colorful personalities that were a ton of fun to watch. The stand out was Chloe Moretz as Hit Girl. She has incredible energy and this great witty spark. She definitely holds her own and also shows such expertise and swiftness combined with the irony of this little innocent seeming girl, craving weapons for her birthday rather than a pony. It’s very comical but also shows a pretty tough image. I am really not a fan of Nicholas Cage. I can’t say he gave a great performance here, but it worked pretty well. That is probably the first time since Raising Arizona that I could say that with much confidence. It’s funny because usually the stereotypical role he plays is finding out about some huge epic disaster and then having to save the world. Here, he actually plays a superhero and it feels more genuine than anything he has done in a long time. He really isn’t a superhero for the good of mankind, but out of personal revenge which helps make him a more interesting character or at least something a little less usual.

The relationship between Big Daddy and Hit Girl is particularly engaging. They live in a very different world than others, one that requires to constantly be ready for anything. There is no question Big Daddy’s mission has affected the way he raised his daughter and caused her to grow up faster than she had to. At the same time, she is undeniably excited and gleeful towards this world of fighting and conquering their target.

Aaron Johnson did a great job both as Dave and Kick-Ass. The two aren’t all that different. As Dave he is timid and genuinely caring, not giving up on the things in his mind’s eye. The main difference is Kick-Ass takes action and doesn’t mind if he has to take a beating himself if it means the safety of others and being like someone that he read about in comic books his whole life. Clark Duke and Evan Peters are both great as Dave’s slightly geeky but very likable and funny friends. Lyndsy Fonseca does well as the pretty and popular girl who shows an interest towards Dave. Seeing the transition to when she thinks he’s gay and when she finds out he is straight and Kick-Ass is very funny and the dynamic between her and Johnson is pretty good, definitely getting you to cheer for the two of them. Christopher Mintz-Plasse is great and is always very funny and a pleasure to watch. He’s eager and excitable as Chris, a mob bosses son seeking attention, but the real appeal is him as Red Mist. All of his perceptions of super heroes and trying to be smooth and cool come out and make him equally stylized and comical.

The soundtrack was amazing and really utilized every moment; bringing out the desired tone throughout the film. It is rare that I really take notice of a non-lyrical soundtrack, but this one really grabbed me. It wasn’t even the music itself that I was initially thinking about during my viewing. I was so engrossed in every moment then realizing it was the music that put me there that I noticed it, which is the sign of a truly effective score. It feels bad ass, raises the tension, makes you excited and enthralled, puts you on the edge of your seat, and even is sentimental at other times; reaching so many different emotions but bringing them all out tactfully.

The action isn’t just your typical superhero action. Some is less like that and more like typical everyday fighting, particularly some of the earlier on scenes with Kick-Ass since he is just a normal guy who isn’t particularly strong or experienced. Some of the scenes with Hit Girl are almost more ninja like, of course on the other side she is fighting drug dealers and mobsters who have a very different brand of fighting. The film surprises you at times, surpassing the fighting with fairly gory and brutal deaths, adding to its style especially in the swiftness that it is usually executed in.

Kick-Ass pokes fun at a lot of superhero movies and their standards without looking down at them as it accepts and utilizes this sub-genre itself. All of the YouTube and Myspace coverage help show the superhero movies we know in our current internet-based cultural environment. There are references to Spiderman getting the girl instead of Peter Parker. There is memorabilia and comics being created after these heroes who exist partially because of other comics showing the case of art imitating life imitating art. The film also enhances what you would expect by making it all the more fierce and at other times turns the tables doing the very opposite of what you expect.