Kick Ass

Kick-Ass (2010)

I'm back, writing reviews on a more regular basis. I know it's been a while, but fuck it, I'm back.
I'm back and here to review Matthew Vaughn's latest film, Kick Ass. I had no preconceived notions of this film outside of the SXSW reviews, and web film critic Devin Faraci's ode to it over at CHUD.com, so I have no idea how faithful this film is to Mark Millar's and John Romita Jr.'s original graphic novel. Frankly, though, it doesn't matter. This film surpasses its namesake, and is by a long shot the single most unadulterated entertaining film this year (so far). Between this film, Iron Man 2, The Expendables, and Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (and, to an extent, Knight And Day) this summer is going to be the best since 2008. But that is besides the point.
Kick Ass is nihilistic, morally reprehensible, anarchic, gratuitously violent, subversive and socially bankrupt; and I absolutely love it for that. Don't walk into the theater expecting a treatise on the human condition (although, with another viewing, I'm sure I can find plenty of exceptions to that warning), and don't expect this film to be a game-changer of the genre the way The Dark Knight seems to be viewed. The plot concerns Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson), a teenaged comic book nerd who no one notices and few care about. He spends his afternoons hanging out with his two friends Todd (Evan Peters) and Marty (Clark Duke) at Atomic Comics, and his days trying to attract the attention of Katie Deauxma ((Lyndsy Fonseca) by doing absolutely nothing. As he laments in the opening narration, he “wasn't bitten by a radioactive spider and he isn't the orphan of some doomed planet”; the most tragic part of his life (played as an off-handed punchline by Vaughn) is that his mother died of a brain aneurism at the breakfast table. After realizing that normal civilians in New York (where the story is set), don't give a shit if they see someone getting mugged, or asking for help, he orders a scuba diving suit, dons a mask, and goes out in his first night as a costumed crimefighter, Kick Ass. He promptly gets his ass handed to him during his first foray, and spends six months in hospital in consequence. A result of his first battle is that his nerve endings were so damaged he can no longer feel pain, and he has metal grafted onto his skeleton to keep it together. His second night out as Kick Ass is more successful, and he soon finds himself a YouTube and internet sensation, and inspiring several other masked vigilantes, including the father-daughter team of Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) and Hit Girl (11 year-old Chloe Moretz). A case of mistaken identity finds Kick Ass the target of mob boss Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong), who eventually agrees to let his son, Chris (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), don the costume (and Dodge Charger) of the Red Mist, in an attempt to draw the heroes out.
The Red Mist, as embodied by Christopher Mintz-Plasse, is the ultimate poser. At first, Dave is also, but he slowly grows out of that stage into actual “superhero” status. Red Mist, however, is in it purely for the appeal and the fame (as well as the Mist-Mobile, which he shows off and describes in a braggart tone)...which makes sense given the character of Chris D-Amico as presented in to film: nerdy, lonely, and unable to relate to anyone due to his bodyguard. The appeal of becoming Red Mist is to gain some fame, a chance to make a friend (Kick Ass), and to potentially make his gangster father proud. Mintz-Plasse plays the character with a surprising amount of menace towards the end: sure, the kid is goofy and nerdy, but his earnestness to make some sort of impression to someone (Kick Ass, his father) leads him to make some pretty poor decisions: and its these decisions that make cause the most damage (some of it fatal). No longer is Mintz-Plasse “McLovin'”; that moniker is dead with this. He is, now, the Red Mist.
First of all, Nicolas Cage is GOOD in this film as former cop Damon Macready; this is the Leaving Las Vegas Cage. The Rock Cage. The Bringing Out The Dead Cage. While it's difficult for me to remember a Nic Cage movie released within the past 5 years (that I've actually seen) in which he was actually trying, he really does an amazing job here; sure, his character is insane, and an asshole for essentially brainwashing his daughter into being the most adorable psychotic in years, but he still makes the character likeable. The Big Daddy/Hit Girl dyad is one that while entertaining and violent and psychotic, is oddly touching because the two are doing what they're doing because they genuinely do love and care about one another. And speaking of Hit Girl...
Chloe Moretz owns this movie. While the scenes of Hit Girl in action are the most outlandishly “comic-book-y” of the entire movie, she plays the character exceedingly well; there was no doubt that this 11 year-old in purple wig, pink utility belt, and plaid skirt will kill every living thing in sight. She's the mouth of a sailor, the looks of a schoolgirl (which is odd, considering it is revealed she never went to school), and the artillery skills of a soldier (or, to keep the comic book comparisons alive, a more talkative Punisher). All this talk in the more mainstream reviews addressing and decrying the sexualization of this 11 year-old are playing into the caveats and satirization of the entire comic book genre: the women in comic books are (for the vast majority) entirely sexualized. Just look at the costumes for the Huntress, Witchblade, Poison Ivy (who usually goes nude, depending on the artist), Power Girl, or Wonder Woman (just to name the first few to pop in my mind). There is no way those costumes are practical. Hell, Power Girl's emblem just seems to be her exposed cleavage. The only female super hero I can think of who has a practical, non-sexualized costume is the latest incarnation of The Question; but even then, her sexualization is displayed in the form of her homosexuality (which has only just, post-52 mini-series) become something more than just a character trait. Perhaps even Spellbinder, but even she is killed not long after her appearance. The sexualization of female characters within comic books is, sadly, nothing new. And I doubt the same critics lamenting Hit Girl's fetishistic costume (which, to me works as a physicalization of the modern aspects of comic books: brightly colored, silly, and ironic, but deadly serious and extremely violent when you get down to it).will be making the same complaints over Scarlett Johanssen's Black Widow costume in Iron Man 2.
The concern here is that, being a child, Chloe Moretz will be setting herself up to be a bad example, merely becoming a perpetuation of the same exploitation of girls that persists all throughout film as a medium. Forget the fact the fact that the character is interesting, fun, has desires and motives, and is surprisingly strong (and driven by a cause), and never once has to resort to her status as “girl”. If the character had been a boy, perhaps the brouhaha over Hit Girl would be different. Perhaps the emphasis would actually be on the strong, bloody violence that an 11 year-old inflicts. Perhaps it would be the cuss words used by said 11 year-old. Perhaps it would be film's satirization of online sensations and the fame earned therein, of citizens taking the law (and guns) into their own hands. Or, if the character had been removed entirely (making Big Daddy merely a revenge-driven psychopath...again, like The Punisher), maybe something else would be blown out of proportion. Like...the frank depictions of teenage sex.
Yes, Kick Ass gets the girl. But only after a certain condition is met. And Aaron Johnson, perfectly cast, doesn't really make the audience want him to get the girl. Sure, we want him to sustain his relationship with her after the fact, but we're not too invested in whether he gets to fuck her or anything. Johnson pulls off that likability perfectly, allowing the audience to warm on Kick Ass as a character long before we fully warm on Dave Lizewski as a person. It was easy to picture myself encountering Dave in college or back when I went to high school, and that was what made him incredibly appealing. Whereas Big Daddy and Hit Girl seemed to know they were in a fantasy (Big Daddy even talking in the campy Adam West style of cutting his words), and where Red Mist obviously played the whole lifestyle as a nerd and celebrity (and casting Mintz-Plasse made it easy to identify him as a nerd, someone who isn't a threat...and his final confrontation in his father's gym ended on a decidedly nerdy, funny note), Dave seems like someone who has a passion and then quickly...and violently...realizes that his passion is getting people killed. And could potentially get him killed too.
The film doesn't hold back with the ridiculous costumes (Red Mist's is especially comic-book-y...with a superfluous cape) and the bright colors, but when the violence occurs, it gets plenty violent. However, Vaughn manages to keep every set piece interesting, shooting each in a stylistically unique way (the first-person-shooter sequence was probably the most visually kinetic, though not the most exciting...although the use of the theme from 28 Days Later was an inspired touch). Kick Ass's first two forays are realistically handled, each hit and punch being felt and having real weight and consequence and the damage inflicted being brutal (also, I love the fact that Kick Ass has to use batons, as he has no real stopping power in his attacks at all).
Cinematographer Ben Davis films much of the movie as a teen-centric comedy (the general tone of the Dave-centric scenes reminded me a lot of Donnie Darko), and a moderately smooth use of the camera (no shaky-cam or handheld, techniques I tend to hate for their confusing nature...and not the sort of “confusing” that the directors intend). Two sequences stand out in terms of sheer cinematic ingenuity: Dave's second night out as Kick Ass, where he beats up three gang members while a diner full of patrons film him; in that scene the lighting suggests a park-set school brawl, and intercutting the action with shots of the security-camera and videophone footage not only made the scene more kinetic, but also more visually interesting. The other exceedingly well-executed scene is the aforementioned first-person-shooter sequence, which works on so many levels, both visually, plot-wise, but also thematically (an 11-year-old being the focus of a POV sequence fashioned after a video game...in which she is shooting and killing men? Start the discussion!); the use of strobe lighting, slow-motion, music, pacing, visual ingenuity, and genuine emotion (one of the characters gets burned alive) makes this sequence perhaps the most well-executed in the entire film. The kinetic cutting technique employed (rather than a shaky camera) provides much of the action scenes with its kineticism.
The use of music (both contemporary pop songs and themes, as well as the original score) grounds the film in a modern realism, and the original theme is hinted at throughout the film until the end of the final action sequence, in which Kick Ass has finally, literally, made himself into a superhero the type of which might be found in the pages of a DC or Marvel comic. At that point, Kick Ass's main theme resounds triumphantly, and I for one couldn't help but smile and think, “Fuck yeah”, watching the sequence.
Thematically, the film is playing with a lot of different ideas, each handled light enough to start a conversation over, but not heavy-handed enough to defuse the film or make it some sort of moralistic “message” film (questions abound: why does Dave seem to spend most of his time in costume reading his MySpace? Why do the only times we see him in action –aside from the climax- serve only to benefit him? What can be said about Dave's opinion that Big Daddy and Hit Girl are “real” superheroes only because they kill the villains?). The film at once celebrates the entire superhero genre, while breaking it down, much like last year's very uneven Watchmen. But unlike Watchmen, Kick-Ass presents a much more convincing view of a world in which costumed heroes run around punching each other in the face and that doesn't feel as if the director were trying his damnedest to please the core fans. The morals here are extremely shaky (again, “superheroes” are defined as such by their willingness to kill the enemy; Kick Ass's acts primarily benefit himself; Big Daddy and Hit Girl kill not only drug dealers, but also drug users, as well as people who just happen to be in the room), and the film does take a dark tonal shift at the end of the second act (much, much darker than would have initially been expected, even if the film follows the proper three-act structure). However, I've seen this film twice already, and will probably watch it once more when it reaches the $4 theatre in my town.
Kick Ass is the first purely fun, memorable, energetic film that I've seen since Star Trek, that also has a lot of points of discussion, and that works on so many levels (teen comedy. Satire. Superhero film. Action film. Etc. etc.) So much works here that it's hard not to be charmed by this film, and the relative success of it (in comparison to Matthew Vaughn's previous two films) promises that a sequel is not too far in coming. But this is also a film that is not going to conform to your idea of what's going to occur, nor is it going to play safe; already critics (including Roger Ebert) are swooping down on this film, listing many reasons why you shouldn't see it and why you should stick to the movies that have a clear moral lesson. Fuck that. Embrace the anarchy and actually make your own judgment about what you think and feel, and why. If Kick Ass is a precursor to the films that are going to be coming our way this summer, then this is going to be an entertaining summer.

P.S--- Preceding the film were trailers for Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, Iron Man 2, The A-Team (which looks like loads of fun), A Nightmare On Elm Street (which looks promising with Jackie Earle Haley as the newest incarnation of Freddy Kreuger), and The Expendables, the trailer that got the largest applause that actually built in severity as each of the actors was individually introduced. I cannot wait.