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Wednesday, April 14, 2010

MOVIE REVIEW: Kick-Ass

Well... that was invigorating.

I'm officially going to declare spring and summer movie season open and for me Kick-Ass was probably the best way to start it all off. It had pretty much everything that I wanted to see from a pop-corn action summer movie. Great action scenes, good humor, a well-structured and engaging plot and talented cast. Also, it was just freaking fun.

Ok so storywise Kick-Ass is your basic superhero movie but a few steps closer to reality than Spider-man or Superman's movie are. There's no powers involved here. The hero didn't get hit by radiation or stumbled upon a crystal from outer space or anything like that. Nope all that we get here is a young man that tries to do something genuinely good in a ridiculous fashion. But hey, whatever works right?

It is a well-told tale of a naive idea blossoming into a phenomenon and then blowing up in the instigator's face. What really makes it fun is that the people that made this movie clearly know their comic book conventions and comic book movie conventions. There's lots of obvious, and possibly a few not so obvious, nods to comics and their movie adaptations, both wellknown and obscure. The producers also know that the events in this movie is just as unlikely to happen as the stuff from any other superhero movie. So while pretending that it's realistic they just went over-the-top with the whole thing.

But it's not thrown at the viewers faces all at once. Instead the movie allows it's over-the-topness to steadily climb throughout the movie. Beginning with a dude that tries to fly under his own power and dies in doing so and eventually reaching a finale that kicks all sense of reality in the crotch, rolls it into a ditch and covers it with ten tons of cement to make way for a climax that quite honestly is just GLORIOUS.

Having read a summary of the original comic's ending I was worried about the ending of the movie being too much of a downer that would leave me feeling that the world is a horrible place. Luckily this is one of those times when Hollywood makes the movie adaptation more light-hearted. It ends on an overall positive note with a bold new world and people are actually happy and stuff. It's nice you know. It's totally different from the comic and I am happy that it is.

That's not to say that there aren't any dark moments in the movie as well. Believe me, this is not a movie for the squeemish. The violence i violent in the real world kind of way and there's a very nasty torture scene right before the finale. Also, it tends to showcase humanity's flaws rather realistically. The humor also tends to lean a bit to the darker edge at times. And you know... an eleven year old girl kills loads of guys and finds it funny. But it evens out with being pretty damn goofy at times.

As for problems with the plot and story. I would've like a little more explanation as to why Nicholas Cage's character talked like a weirdo when in Big Daddy mode. I mean, I can sort of understand that he might be masking his voice to make himself more difficult to identify based on that. But Hit-Girl doesn't do that. It's not a game-breaker but it sort of bugged me. Also, I felt that Red Mist's and Kick-Ass relationship could've needed more development. It just seemed kind of odd when it was revealed that Red Mist didn't want Kick-Ass to be hurt when previously he was aiming to get him taken out.

Then there's one of my constant annoyances with fiction overall, but especailly movies. The love story. There's a rather shallow one between the titular character and your average popular cheerleader type female love interest. While I could personally live withou it I gotta say that for one moment they actually use their relationship to give some deeper meaning an conflict to Kick-Ass' reason for being. So cudos for that.

Moving on to the action. I've seen many reviews compare the action in Kick-Ass to the action in a Tarantion movie and I will simply agree with them. It's brutal, fast-paced and beautifully coreographed. I'm not sure how much of it is CGI, if any, but it sure as hell looked a lot more real than most other superhero movies you will see today. Well... except for that one scene, you'll know which one. Anyway, the action was great and I didn't even think about CGI while watching the entire thing. I appreciate that very much.

The acting in the movie varies from good to excellent with, as everybdoy and their mother have pointed out by now, Chloƫ Grace Moretz stealing the show as the terrifying yet endearing Hit-Girl. These are talented people at work here people. Sit back and enjoy them excell at their work.

Next there's one thing that I usually don't notice very much when it comes to movies. It's just not my thing. The music in this movie is freaking AWESOME! I can't remember a time when I last sat an enjoyed the music as much as what was going on on the screen. It totally enhanced the experience for me. So yeah... the music's great and I'm considering getting the sound track.

Lastly, I feel that out of all the comic book movies that flood the movie market right now I believe that this one most successfully manages to get a point across. More specifially, it's a point about helping your fellow man when they're in trouble and just doing something good for the world. Dressing up in tights and trying to fight crime might not be the best idea for it. But it's better than nothing you know.

This is a fun movie and I recommend it to just about anybody that doesn't mind some dark stuff and bloody, in relative moderation, violence. And again, the climx is GLORIOUS.

Overall score, 8/10.

1 comment:

  1. I haven't seen this yet, but I am looking forward to it.

    ReplyDelete