Kick-Ass kicks ass…oh the cliché. This reviewer shall not be as lazy as that. However, one can assure you that this film is fantastic beyond all conceptions and has set the bar for comic book films for the next decade incredibly high. Even simpler, this is cinema for the 21st century. Avatar gave us the technology; however, Kick-Ass delivered the film. With a director reaching the peak of his career, a young cast bursting with talent and script so well written it’s scary; it’s a reawakening to what cinema can do when people try.
Mark Millar, who originally wrote the original comic, is the flavour of the month within Hollywood and it’s not hard to see why. His story is one of genius and it was only a matter of time before it hit the big screen. Nonetheless, it can be seen as a poison chalice. To ensure the film’s success, you have to create a believable set up where a 12 year old girl is a mass murdering uber assassin, a teenager would actively dress up in a scuba diving suit to save people, and that someone who dresses like Batman is an actual badass. Therefore, a director with skill, vivacity and understanding is needed. Come to the stage, Matthew Vaughn
His previous works has shown a steady increase of quality and improvement throughout his career. Layer Cake, although single minded, was well made, efficient and brought an excellent performance from Daniel Craig. Indeed, Stardust can be accredited to being one of the few successes of the revitalised fairytale genre as it avoided patronising the audience whist providing an enjoyable fancy free experience. However, Kick-Ass is the pinnacle of his career. As will later be discussed, everything about this film absolutely rocks; and the credit seems to lie mainly at the feet of Vaughn.
Kick-Ass is a bursting with energy; at times it seems to struggle to fit itself all in the screen. It’s like a 4 year old buzzing after downing a bottle of Sunny D (or whatever the kids drink nowadays) and just wants to run around and show off. Kick-Ass does this in spades. Vaughn is unafraid of tackling the big issues head on and balances them each out perfectly. For example, The Dark Knight is brilliant and the action scenes are sublime; however, laughs are pretty low throughout the 160 minutes spectacle. On the other extreme, Mr & Mrs Smith tries to go for action and laughs emphasising the laughs part (Look, they’re married in real life! Oh my god they’re married in this life and fighting! I wonder if that’s what really happens…oh mercy) failing on both parts. However, Hit Girl’s extreme language, the awkwardness of Dave’s (Kick-Ass/Aaron Johnson) general day-to-day life and Nic Cage’s (Big Daddy) amazing non-laugh just keep the laugh rolling. Every little scene has a glint of humour and the fact that it doesn’t overwhelm the audience shows how great Vaughn’s direction is.
Vaughn’s brilliance is every present in the film with Kick-Ass holding some of the most skilled shots and scenes in the past decade. Take a look at the Razuul scene involving Hit-Girl and tell me whether or not you think this film is energetic and brilliant. It’s unashamed of what it is. It’s violent, bloody, bloody funny and a film about comic books. Vaughn ignores the old clichés of heroes with responsibility because as Kick-Ass says “with no powers comes no responsibility”. Vaughn enjoys this liberation and thrives in showing off his young cast with Aaron Johnson and Chloe Moretz shining through.
However, in contrast with early metaphor of the hyper 4 year old; Vaughn also highlights a calmer and considered side within this film. Yes, Vaughn deals with the action scenes and ass kickings (sorry…) amazingly well; but it’s the manner in which he deals with the delicate scenes is the factor that moves this film into 5 star territories. Every great film needs a conscience. The audience needs to know there is a why and how otherwise they may feel short changed. However, they must not overwhelm the audience which Peter Parker’s and Bruce Wayne’s conscience on occasion had the ability to do. Vaughn shows skill by presenting us with each character’s motive without the need of in depth psychological analysis therefore holding the audience’s eyes and brain fully attached and focused upon his film. Indeed, when these moments arise, you don’t feel awkward or impatient; you simply listen.
Furthemore, there are scenes within this film that truly shock the audience; the scene in which a Kick Ass lookalike is shot in cold blood knocks the wind out of the audience’s laughing machine, which in turn, grounds the film in a much needed reality. Vaughn understands that this is no ordinary subject material and Vaughn has shown a very subtle awareness of the audience and of teenage boy everywhere. One could argue that his treatment of high school and horny boys almost harks back to the ideas of the late great John Hughes. However, no matter how great Vaughn’s direction is, he needed an amazing cast to pull this off. He got all that and more in the form of the one the freshest, funniest and best casts I’ve ever seen.
All critics are unanimous about the brilliance of Hit Girl (Chloe Moretz) and Kick-Ass (Aaron Johnson). Page after page has been dedicated to them and rightly so; however, within this piece I will be short and sharp. They’re brilliant. Both handle the dialogue and action scenes like seasoned pros. Firstly, Chloe Moretz is destined for great things as she simply bedazzles the audience with her outrageous swearing and amazing knife skills. It’s testament to Moretz that in such a different and difficult role for child actor to play, she pulls it off and steals the show. Johnson, capitalising from his success in Nowhere Boy, is excellent. We understand why he does what he does. Johnson present a much more realistic high school teenager than Tobey Maguire ever did. Furthermore, he’s not Superman and he’s unease at facing up to criminals and girls alike can’t help but make you laugh. Nevertheless to say this is the Moretz and Johnson show delivers an injustice to the rest of the cast. Mark Strong is excellent; although his wavering American accent is sometimes rather noticeable, he presents a colder harder edge upon his RocknRolla persona and is truly scary at times. Also, Christopher Mintz-Plasse shakes free from the McLovin shackles to presents us with a nerd desperate to please his mobster dad yet hopelessly out of tune with the world; although this sounds remarkably similar, witness the film for yourself and you’ll see the evolution of another actor hopefully moving onto great things. Finally, there’s Nic Cage. Ok, Nic Cage dressed like Batman kicking serious ass. Seriously. What more do you need?
The cast in its entirety is on top form. Another noticeable mention must go to the soundtrack. It’s punchy, exciting and has the best songs I’ve heard all year. If you’re not tempted to at least download (or torrent, but I wouldn’t advocate it because this film deserves every single one of your pennies, let alone 79p) one of the tracks, I urge you to watch it again and re-evaluate this film masterpiece.
I understand this film will not be to everyone’s taste. The excessive gore and bad language may offend many and how it got a 15 certificate, I will never know. However, this is THE film for our generation. It has tons of violence, clever direction, subtle character understandings, hilarious dialogue, the best shots/scenes I’ve seen in a very long time and Nic Cage. Basically, why are you still reading this? Go watch this film, NOW! So the lasting question from this film arises from a quote from Hit Girl, “Ok you c****, let’s see what you can do now?” So Hollywood, what is up next? We’re waiting.
5/5
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