Kick-Ass (2010)
Friday, 14. May 2010Kick-Ass is the newest movie by Matthew Vaughn, based on the comic book by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr., starring Aaron Johnson, Chloe Moretz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Mark Strong and Nicolas Cage.
Plot:
Dave (Aaron Johnson) is a normal teenager who likes to read comic books and gets beat up a lot. But then one day he decides that, actually, nothing is keeping him from donning a superhero suit and changing the world for the better. This seems to work fine for about 30 seconds and then Dave is in over his head.
Kick-Ass is a fantastic, amazingly disturbing and definitely defining movie. Though I don’t like the morale of it, I can recognise an instant classic when I see it. And Kick-Ass is it.
Kick-Ass makes me feel old. It seems it’s a movie made for the generation that comes after mine. I’ve been mulling this over and I think that Kick-Ass might be for that generation what Fight Club was for mine… and that’s a scary thought for so many reasons. Not the least of which is that there is a generation after me that is old enough to see this film.
But enough about me. This is supposed to be a review after all.
I’ve had my problems with the resolution of the story (and I haven’t yet read the comic, so I don’t know how much is in the comic and what was changed). I didn’t like the morale – that in the end [SPOILER] Dave starts using the methods of the psychos like Big Daddy and Hit Girl (and boy, are they ever psychos). Up until the very end, his role is one of somebody who shows civil courage, mostly. Who is pretty revolted by BD and HG’s murderous tendencies. And instead of leaving it that way and therefore drawing a clear line between acceptable behaviour from “heros” and inacceptable behaviour, he joins in the whole thing and he can only resolve the situation like that. Did not like that at all. [/SPOILER]
But apart from that, it was a fantastic movie. Matthew Vaughn outdid himself in pretty much all categories, unfortunately also the violence. [People, L4yer Cake made me cringe already. Kick-Ass is worse.] I don’t have a problem with violent movies [though I have to admit that the audience worried me a little bit... they were laughing at stuff that made me completely uncomfortable] but you’ve got to have a good stomach for this film.
The cast is really good. (And I feel a bit like a pedophile saying this, but Aaron Johnson is really cute.) It was nice to see Nicolas Cage in a good movie and Mark Strong actually worked as the villain in this film.
Oh, and the soundtrack was really nice.
Summarising, if you can stand excessive violence, Kick-Ass is not a movie you should miss.
the fight club if the next generation… sounds interesting (and I think that we are, in fact, a little too young to be the fight club generation. we were jsut so mature to get most of it already.)
@ violence in movies: haven’t seen this one so I can’t say anything about it. But I like a lot of violence in movies if I don’t get to see the results. Shoot 100 men and let them fall in a wonderful choreography – nice. Heroic wounds on Ryan Reynolds body – wonderful. Someone dieing with grace and a cool oneliner – perfect. Beat up the badies (10 against one of course, and the one emerging victorious) to the rythm of the soundtrack. Let everyone take pain with grace. Let everyone not flinch.
But don’t make me see people’s faces when they are in pain. Don’t ever show the results of anything. No tears, no screams, no panick. I don’t want to see it.
And, most of all: Never let the music stop.
Well, if we’re too young for Fight Club and I feel too old for Kick-Ass, what the hell is the movie of our generation?
@violence: That’s one of the reasons Funny Games is that horrifying. You don’t get to see the acts of violence, only the consequences.
Yes. And nobody wants to see the consequences. People who don’t mind seeing this sort of stuff are really creepy or really well trained (like doctors. Or secret service agents.)
… let’s consider us part of the Figh Club generation. ^^
But, you know, F.C. has this middle-crisis thingy in it. and we *really* are too young for that.
Donnie Darko, I think, is generally considered one of those defining-movie-thingies (I’ve never been entirely certain what that meant…it didn’t do anything special for me).
@violence – That’s exactly why I won’t watch Funny Games. Ever.
We are a few years too young for Donnie Darko.
Memento?
Kill Bill?
… 300 spartans? ^^
Donnie Darko was made the year after Memento, so that one’s out.
Actually, why did I start a debate on generation-defining films when I don’t even know what a generation is, exactly.
If I had to settle, I’d say our youth belonged to whatever it was that happened in cinema between John Hughes and Judd Apatow.
huh? Who?
Let’s stick with Fight Club,
Is it too late to join the discussion?
Anyway, my 2 cents:
We are not too young for Donnie Darko. We would have been just the right age for it. But I don’t think it did as much for girls as it did for boys.
But I really don’t know what better movie to describe our generation. [Which, btw, was never my intention, I just meant to say that Kick-Ass is to this generation what Fight Club was to ours. Which doesn't mean that Fight Club is the only movie of our generation.]
But if we’re talking TV show: Wonderfalls/Dead Like Me. Though both of those rather describe the status quo than shape the way we see the world.
And I still think that Fight Club (minus the midlife-crisis thing) is the pendant to Kick-Ass.
You’re probably right. The themes are essentially the same – escapism gone apeshit ^^ (They should make that a genre, now that I think of it.)
But I’ve had another idea for the generation-defining-thing. If we’re talking everybody’s-seen-it-and-can-gets/uses-references-to-it-in-daily-life, then it’s got to be LotR and Matrix.
Escapism gone apeshit is a wonderful name for a genre.
LotR and Matrix – very true. Very, very true.
A propos of violence:
I’m watching a “Criminal Minds”-version of “Funny Games”. Irony completed.
*headdesk*
[...] is a to me rather controversial movie. It’s like Kick-Ass but with a morale I can agree with even less. If it wasn’t for the ending – and the way the audience around me reacted to it – [...]