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Director: Matthew Vaughn
Screenwriters: Jane Goldman, Matthew Vaughn
Starring: Aaron Johnson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Nicolas Cage, Chloe Grace Moretz, Mark Strong
Synopsis
Dave Lizewski (Johnson) is an unnoticed high school student and comic book fan who one day decides to become a superhero, even though he has no powers, training or meaningful reason to do so. But when he encounters the dynamic duo Hit Girl (Moretz) and Big Daddy (Cage), he gets involved in a war between the vigilantes and a crime syndicate.
Review
“How come nobody’s tried to be a superhero?”, asked by Dave Lizewski to his nerdy friends, which they reply: “If anybody did that in real life, they get their ass kicked in a day”. That most certainly is true as this kid who is a post-modern interpretation of Peter Parker tries to fight crime but ends up waking up in a hospital.
Based on the comic book series by Mark Millar (the demented writer behind Wanted) and fan-favourite artist John Romita Jr., Matthew Vaughn’s latest feature is a comedic actioner that brings something new to comic book movies, just as Hot Fuzz did to cop movies. Kick-Ass is one that honours the films that came out of that genre without trying to make a spoof of it.
If you are familiar with the history of this film and the comic that it’s based upon, you will know that both were being developed at the same time. While Millar was still writing the issues, Vaughn and co-writer Jane Goldman was developing the script before knowing what the execution was going to be.
For the most part, the film stays true to what Millar had written, in terms of its witty dialogue (with comic references) and for all you bloodnuts out there, the film keeps the comic’s violent tone. However, Vaughn and Goldman do not a hundred percent follow the source material as they have created their own back story for Hit Girl and her Big Daddy and perhaps the most obvious: the execution of Dave’s friendship with the girl next door whilst posing as a homosexual.
This might sound so outrageous and over-the-top, and it is true, but thanks to the intelligence of the Layer Cake director, what Vaughn displays in this story of violence and vigilantism: both a brain and a heart. Vaughn has successfully adapted a demented comic book into a filmable piece with an European edge, featuring cartoon-like characters into three-dimensional human beings.
As someone who was considered for X-Men 3 (which would’ve been an interesting take) and the upcoming Thor, Matthew Vaughn has always wanted to do a comic book film and Kick-Ass definitely shows this passion as he has a strong visceral vision and brilliantly conducts these action sequences which are tough and violent and best of all, highly entertaining.
After seeing his acclaimed performance as John Lennon in Nowhere Boy, Aaron Johnson is on a roll and this is evidence. Johnson here is at best a handsome dweeb who believed his only superpower before becoming the title character is invisibility due to his population in school. If you think Johnson looks ridiculous in that green gimp-like suit, there is an essence of coolness by Christopher ’McLovin’ Mintz-Plasse as Red Mist, whose costume looks like Michael Jackson in Thriller.
However, the finest performances in the film are Nicolas Cage and newcomer Chloe Grace Moretz, who has become the surprising star of Kick-Ass. Cage has recently had his ups and downs, but he’s doing his best performance in years as Big Daddy who looks like Batman and speaking like the classic screen presence of Adam West. Now onto the eleven-year-old Hit Girl, who will be the one character everyone will discuss about as Chloe Grace Moretz is swearing and does the proper ass-kicking, and yet there is a delicateness that stays true to the persona of an eleven-year-old girl.
Verdict
While we’re waiting for the upcoming Iron Man 2, Kick-Ass is the strongest contender so far to be the finest action-packed piece of 2010. Also, it is the best superhero/comic book film since The Dark Knight.
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Printable Version
RE: AWESOME!!!! - 
Not enough Nic Cage, not enough action sequences and the ones that were there were fairly short and quite rapidly cut, and there was bit of a lull in the middle.... 
), the way they were going on I was expecting something out of this freakin' world, so any faults became all the more apparent, and sadly for me it turned out just merely above average. I'd give it 3.5/5 
Surprised it hasn't caused more of a stir. 
) kick ass!! This is the bar that the rest of 2010 will have to better -bring it on!!! 8/5/10
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