She Blinded Me with Violence

The past two or three decades have seen so many so-called “experts” telling us that we’ve been desensitized to violence in the media. We’ve heard arguments that since there’s so much graphic violence, blood, and gore in movies, TV, and newspapers that we no longer get shocked when we see all of those things in real life. Believe me though when I say this: watching Kick-Ass will shock you out of any desensitization you may have had before you entered the cinema.

Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) is a geeky high school student who dreams of becoming a superhero. Living with his widowed father and hanging out with fellow geeks Marty (Clark Duke) and Todd (Evan Peters) he wants to make a difference in his community while also impressing his crush, Katie Deauxma (Lyndsy Fonseca). Creating his own superhero costume, Dave assumes the identity of “Kick-Ass” but gets beaten up the first time he tries stopping crime. Eventually gaining fame through YouTube, Dave inspires other heroes to put costumes on, but it also earns him the enmity of the mob run by Frank D’Amico (Mark Strong).

Kick-Ass literally kicks serious ass. Based on the Icon Comic written by Mark Millar and drawn by John Romita, Jr., the film is over the top in its depiction of violence and I loved it. Johnson gets his ass handed to him a number of times, cementing why there are no superheroes in real life. His portrayal of Dave is different parts funny, pathetic, tragic, and ultimately, triumphant, no small feat for someone in their first major movie role. His interaction with the equally geeky and awkward Chris D’Amico/Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) is funny because both desperately want to be cool yet fail on so many levels. Mintz-Plasse still reminds all of us of his role as McLovin in Superbad, and it’s going to be tough for him to get out of these kinds of roles, but I’m not going to hate him for making the most out of the situation.

Ultimately, most people will love the character of Hit-Girl (Chloe Grace Moretz) and her father Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage). Not only do they love using weapons and killing bad guys, they actually have a real, loving father-daughter relationship. I knew that I’d seen Moretz in other films, but I didn’t realize that she was the little girl in the 2005 remake of The Amityville Horror or Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s sister in the horrible (500) Days of Summer. She’s just amazing as the cussing, balisong-using Hit-Girl and I’ve got no doubt that she’ll be a star after this. Cage lost a lot of his “geek credibility” because his performance as Johnny Blaze was so bad in Ghost Rider. In Kick-Ass, he gets that geek cred back in spades. You actually see glimpses of the great actor that Cage was before he tended to just do any movie that met his price.

Director Matthew Vaughn really seems to go to town with the tongue-in-cheek humor and graphic violence in Kick-Ass. Although at this point, I haven’t read the source material just yet, I’ve heard from multiple sources that the film captures most of Millar’s and Romita’s humor, in-your-face action, and unapologetic displays of gore. Vaughn uses the violence though, not just for the sake of showing blood and guts, but also to hammer home the notion that superheroes are best left in the realm of make believe. Also, I’ve even heard some people say that the film version of Kick-Ass actually surpasses the comic version in terms of coolness and fun. That is a major accomplishment for any movie adaptation to achieve.

I realize that it’s only been four months in 2010, but I’m already saying that Kick-Ass has been my favorite movie of the year so far. It’s irreverent, it’s imaginative, it’s hilarious, it’s pathetic, but it’s also tons of fun to watch. I’d definitely watch it again in a heartbeat, for fear of Hit-Girl kicking my ass all over the place.