Kick Ass: Movie Review

Kick Ass: Movie Review

Rating: 8/10
Cast: Aaron Johnson, Nicolas Cage, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Mark Strong, Chloe Grace Moretz
Director: Matthew Vaughn
What if the superhero in your neck of the woods really was the guy next door?
And what if he really didnt have any special powers other than a desire to make a difference and live upto his love of comic books?
In Kick Ass, Aaron Johnson stars as Dave Lizewski, your average teenage boy who is at a loss as to why no-ones ever become a superhero. So donning an all over green body scuba suit, Dave aka Kick Ass heads out to the streets to see if he can make a difference.
And he does for about 2 minutes; before hes stabbed, beaten up and run over by a car.
However, after a spell in hospital and undeterred, Kick Ass heads back to the streets and becomes a sensation much to the disgust of local crime kingpin Frank DAmico (a brilliant Mark Strong) who vows to shut him down.
But DAmico has other problems in the form of 2 other masked vigilantes, Big Daddy (a superb Nicolas Cage) and his daughter protégé, Hit Girl (Chloe Grace Moretz in an abusive star turn) who want revenge on DAmico.
When all of their paths cross, the would be superheroes find their lives changed forever.

Theres so much to love about KickAss granted, its not for everyone but this film, based on a comic book and adapted for the screen by Jonathan Ross wife, will have you laughing loud.
From Nicolas Cage brilliantly channelling Adam West as Big Daddy, through to Johnsons very rounded performance as the everyday kid who ponders why a nobody becomes a superhero, Kick Ass is a welcome addition to the comic book genre.
But what marks it out above the normal films is how its grounded in a reality as Lizewski notes you only need naivety and optimism to become a comic book hero as hes just your average guy, no radioactive spiders. Coupled with some very real violence (and one use of some boundary pushing language from the young Hit Girl, which offended some censors), this comic book adaptation embraces the reality of the superhero world and subverts your expectations.

Each kick, each punch, each beating has a very real effect on those who experience it and its this which may catch you off guard because you expect the heroes to survive every blow. And they all have issues too when Kick Ass realizes a new superhero in town is getting more attention than him, he looks to add a cape to his outfit to see if its giving him the edge; its this kind of layered detail which really brings the story to life.

Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake) has done a great job with bringing this stylishly to the screen; along with a pumping soundtrack, cut scenes of fights and a truly brilliant flashback involving the best use of a comic ever committed to celluloid, Kick Ass really does reset the boundaries for the genre.

Forget Spiderman, X-Men, The Hulk et al Kick Ass is the new hero in town and having set such dizzying highs on the screen through some great action set pieces, it really does deserve to be your new favourite film.