Caffeinated Clint
By Clint Morris
If Christopher Nolan’s two ”Batman” films taught us anything it’s that there’s a price to pay for being a superhero – a big price. You can’t get about the city fighting crime night-after-night without catching a never-ending dose of the night sweats, nor can you remain as strong -minded and as together as ever after coming face-to-face with murderous thugs like The Joker and Scarecrow. No, in due course, the psychological scarring will likely ultimately see our caped hero inhabiting a cell at Arkham Asylum himself – it may be his only sanctuary.
But seems Nolan’s ”Batman” films are where the morality lessons end.
”Batman Begins” and ”Dark Knight” have changed the superhero movie genre in many ways – but one aspect surprisingly remains unchanged. The ‘there’s repercussions to being a superhero’ theme that played on loop through the aforementioned epic comic book flicks? Gone.
If Matthew Vaughn’s ”Kick-Ass” is anything to go by, the message that ‘those in tights will be popping for the rest of their days, and seeing a shrink for likely just as long, if they proceed in their chosen profession’ has seemingly been seized and strangled.
Once again, it’s okay to bash, kill and take justice into your own hands.There’ll be no repercussions. Heck, you won’t even get grounded. And if you’re losing sleep, it’s only because you’re following up your nights of crime-fighting with an impromptu Wii session.
Pity that some kind of morality message wasn’t relayed in here… somewhere… because, quite frankly, ”Kick-Ass” is as violent and as disturbing as you’ll get.
And I suppose this is where I should also mention that it’s a comedy?
But hey, teenagers know the difference between right and wrong, right?
That’s the over protective parent in me talking above, this is the kid in me taking over – ”Kick-Ass” is a brilliant film; lots of fun, lots of action, lots of laugh, and some way-cool death sequences! (And it’s like so cool that these kids can kill heaps of people and be able to carry on their normal lives at the same time!)
Why can’t a normal kid be a superhero?
That’s the question that ultimately leads to young high schooler Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) ordering a costume online, and taking on the super-cool soubriquet, ”Kick-Ass”.
With baton in hand, the emerald- superman prowls the streets looking for criminal activity – jumping into the fire at any and every opportunity. And he quickly discovers he’s not the only one who gets a kick out of sparring with scum – a father-and-daughter duo, going by the name of Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) and Hit Girl (Chloe Moretz), significantly more experienced in the art of the kill than Kick-Ass is, also patrol the streets of New York City looking to eradicate bad guys.
”Kick-Ass” becomes an instant celebrity. His local hangout starts selling memorabilia with his name on it, the set of clothes (no more than a green wet suit) he wears becomes a costume store favourite, his fights are highly bookmarked YouTube favourites, and his MySpace page is inundated with fan requests. Mask-less, Dave’s life is also improving – he’s finally attracted the interests of school hottie Katie (Lyndsy Fonseca).. um, even if she does think he’s gay.
When mobster Frank D’Amico’s (Mark Strong) men start turning up dead, the heavy immediately assumes it’s the teenage superhero’s doing. And after a failed attempt to start Kick-Ass dead in his tracks himself, employs his teenage son, Chris (”Superbad”’s Christopher Mintz-Plasse), to help him slow down the super-one.
Masquerading as fellow superhero Red Mist, Chris befriends Kick-Ass, with plans to eventually lead him directly into the Lion’s den.
But Kick-Ass – and his on-call colleagues, Hit Girl and Big Daddy – isn’t that an easy target, as Red Mist and his murderous father soon discover when they becomes pawns in a one-sided bloody superhero-centric battle extravaganza that gives Kill Bill a run for its money.
Imagine Quentin Tarantino doing a Marvel comic book movie and you almost get the idea of what to expect with the Jane Goldman-penned ”Kick-Ass” – effectively, it’s a bloody, bad-ass action film that’s littered with as much humour and pop-culture references as it is discarded limbs and oversized weaponry. And yeah, I really liked it.
Johnson, Cage (love the voice he adopted as ‘Big Daddy’ – it’s very Adam West/Batman), Strong, Mintz-Plasse and Clark Duke (as Dave’s portly pal) are fun, but performance-wise the movie solely belongs to up-and-comer Chloe Moretz. This girl is amazing. She’s a hoot to watch as an 11-year-old assassin – just try and stop from cheering and yahooing as the pint-sized caped wonder slices and dices her way through a room of nasty gangsters. It’s gold! Here’s hoping she gets her own spin-off… and soon!
Absence of morality message aside, Director Matthew Vaughn (”Layer Cake”, ”Stardust”) also does a top job. His film is vivacious, pacey, and choca-bloc with more than a few moments that’ll inevitably become highly-watched and oft-referenced cinematic moments. In fact, one of the film’s only downfalls is a slightly languorous first-half – Vaughn saves up all the goodies for the film’s last half-hour so proceedings do tend to drag a bit in that first couple of reels.
So long as parents know this isn’t ”Spider-Man” (the trailer does deceive) and is instead more in the vein of ”Kill Bill”, I can’t think of a better movie for father-and-son to check out together in celebration of the youngster’s 16th birthday – it’s a blast! But yeah, just remember the ‘don’t try this at home’ speech afterwards Dad – or you could be witnessing your sprog boomeranging razorblades at the postman next week!
