Kick-Ass review
When the 11-year-old Hit Girl bursts onto the scene with “Okay you cunts, let’s see what you can do now” and promptly slaughters a group of people in an almighty bloodbath to The Banana Splits theme tune, Kick-Ass really kicks off and you know you are in for an unapologetically black comedy.
Doubly thankfully, Kick-Ass is an atypical superhero movie but it isn’t, as it might look from the trailer, a Superhero Movie-like cheap gimmick. An intelligent, sometimes dark and frequently hilarious take on the what-if-the-world-really-had-costumed-heroes genre, it is a welcome respite from the recent glut of more traditional superhero films.
As fresh as it is, the movie pays serious homage to superhero comics and films and its plot points are lifted directly from the likes of Spider Man, Batman and Wolverine, from geek turned hero to metal-lined bones to the birth of the superhero’s mirror-image supervillain and an ending shaped for a foreboding sequel. For the uninitiated, lack of familiarity isn’t a problem because it’s a tried, tested, and enjoyable structure but for those who have a bit more knowledge of relevant pop culture history, there is another layer rife with respectful nods and sly in-jokes.
With the imminent embarrassment of Iron Man 2 to be followed next year by Kenneth Branagh’s Much Ado About Thor and Joe Johnston’s Honey, I Shrunk Captain America, I’m far from looking forward to Marvel’s culminating The Avengers clusterfuck. If only the superhero movie could end on this high note. Excelsior, bitches.
1st Apr 2010 | Official site | On IMDb
I particularly enjoyed Nic Cage as Big Daddy doing his best Adam West impression throughout.
Kriss Watt, 1st Apr 2010