"Kick Ass" Review Thread

[Broccoli]

My problem with the jetpack was that the movie sets up this world that people are becoming superheroes based off of everyday items you can probably buy online. When they brought in the jetpack with a gatling gun, it broke the "mostly realism" the film had. I'm sorry, I know they bought it online, but jetpacks with gatling guns don't exist. Even the few jetpacks that do exist cannot do what it does in the movie.

Also, Mark Strong being blown away by the bazooka was a little too cartoony in context with the rest of the film.

However, I think my biggest disappointment with the end was that they didn't adapt Hit-Girl snorting up cocaine (though, she thinks it is a super-secret chemical compound designed by scientists) and proceeding to go completely batshit crazy when taking down the thugs. I was so looking forward to that scene as it was probably my favorite in the comic.

Also, no use of the word "tunk." Sadness.

 

[Kirkman1987]

Saw the movie last night and thought it was great. Hit-Girl was the clear highlight, but I thought everyone was entertaining. The comedy was good and there was more action than I expected, which pleased me greatly.

 

[JacksonArcher]

My problem with the jetpack was that the movie sets up this world that people are becoming superheroes based off of everyday items you can probably buy online. When they brought in the jetpack with a gatling gun, it broke the "mostly realism" the film had. I'm sorry, I know they bought it online, but jetpacks with gatling guns don't exist. Even the few jetpacks that do exist cannot do what it does in the movie.

I was under the impression that Damon retrofitted the jetpack with the gatling gun. It didn't so much bother me as I was having such a good time with the film that I just allowed it to happen... and I think director Matthew Vaughn was assuming that as well.

Also, Mark Strong being blown away by the bazooka was a little too cartoony in context with the rest of the film.

My friend and I were joking that in reality the RPG would have just exploded D'Amico right on the spot, thusly killing Kick-Ass, Hit-Girl, and Red Mist, and we hypothesized how funny it would have been had he done that, killing everybody, and then for the movie to just end.

However, I think my biggest disappointment with the end was that they didn't adapt Hit-Girl snorting up cocaine (though, she thinks it is a super-secret chemical compound designed by scientists) and proceeding to go completely batshit crazy when taking down the thugs. I was so looking forward to that scene as it was probably my favorite in the comic.

Wow, that definetely would have went well with Ebert and the other detractors who were appalled at the violence and language perpetuated by Hit-Girl.

 

[SG-17]

I guess I play too much BFBC2 and MW2 because I recognized almost every weapon on the wall of the safehouse and the ones D'Amico's men were carrying.

When I saw the jetpack I was too pumped up from the rest of the movie to care about its implausibility. As for not having Hit-Girl snort cocaine, I think that would have been a bit over the top really.

 

[Broccoli]

My problem with the jetpack was that the movie sets up this world that people are becoming superheroes based off of everyday items you can probably buy online. When they brought in the jetpack with a gatling gun, it broke the "mostly realism" the film had. I'm sorry, I know they bought it online, but jetpacks with gatling guns don't exist. Even the few jetpacks that do exist cannot do what it does in the movie.

I was under the impression that Damon retrofitted the jetpack with the gatling gun. It didn't so much bother me as I was having such a good time with the film that I just allowed it to happen... and I think director Matthew Vaughn was assuming that as well.

I think it came like that as Hit-Girl says that she didn't know it had the gatling guns and Big Daddy saying that you couldn't see them from the online picture. I'd have to double check though. That wasn't so much of an issue as how Kick-Ass was flying around the city with little difficultly. No jetpack can do what that did (discounting the guns).

Anyway, the audience did get into it. So, you have a point there. However, I still think it undercut what the film was trying to present.

Also, Mark Strong being blown away by the bazooka was a little too cartoony in context with the rest of the film.

My friend and I were joking that in reality the RPG would have just exploded D'Amico right on the spot, thusly killing Kick-Ass, Hit-Girl, and Red Mist, and we hypothesized how funny it would have been had he done that, killing everybody, and then for the movie to just end. [/quote]

Haha...true. Then again, they probably couldn't have depicted how he was killed in the comic, so they probably figured this would be more amusing. I still thought it was a little too over the top, even for this movie.

However, I think my biggest disappointment with the end was that they didn't adapt Hit-Girl snorting up cocaine (though, she thinks it is a super-secret chemical compound designed by scientists) and proceeding to go completely batshit crazy when taking down the thugs. I was so looking forward to that scene as it was probably my favorite in the comic.

Wow, that definetely would have went well with Ebert and the other detractors who were appealed at the violence and language perpetuated by Hit-Girl.

Well, in fairness, it is only implied that it was cocaine and never fully confirmed. But yeah...I know...

 

[SG-17]

Haha...true. Then again, they probably couldn't have depicted how he was killed in the comic, so they probably figured this would be more amusing. I still thought it was a little too over the top, even for this movie.

How did they kill him in the comic?

 

[CaptainCanada]

Haha...true. Then again, they probably couldn't have depicted how he was killed in the comic, so they probably figured this would be more amusing. I still thought it was a little too over the top, even for this movie.

How did they kill him in the comic?

Meat cleaver through the head, courtesy of Hit-Girl.

Edit: Another of my favourite moments was the marquee at the theatre when Dave and his friends were leaving it: The Spirit 3

 

[DarthPipes]

Awesome film. Just got back from it and I really enjoyed it. A fucked up film to be sure but highly entertaining with some great violent action and a lot of humor. Good job by the cast all-around with Hit Girl being a standout and Nic Cage doing a great pseudo-Batman impersonation. I actually liked seeing Cage fight in that costume more because you could actually see the action, something Chris Nolan is incapable of doing at times.

 

[JacksonArcher]

It was weird seeing Cage in that costume. Maybe at first it was a little off-putting. After so many years of hearing him rumored for Superman, and him being such a recognizable figure, to see him as a pseudo-Batman type of character was just slightly odd and interesting at the same time.

 

[DarthPipes]

I find Roger Ebert's criticims of Kick Ass to be a complete joke. Roger Ebert is a guy who has a full-scale boner for Quentin Tarantino, the most gratiously violent filmmaker in Hollywood. Series, Ebert doesn't just like Tarantino, he LOVES Tarantino. I always remember a Siskel and Ebert where he tried to explain the violence in Pulp Fiction wasn't as bad as everyone said and used the scene of Bruce Willis killing the guy with the samauri sword as an example. He said it wasn't bad because you never saw the blade actually slice through the front of the guy and into him. I'm not making this up.

Roger Ebert criticizes the violence in Kick Ass but I'm sure he'd go on about how "brilliant" the scalpings are in Quentin Tarantino's films.

 

[Broccoli]

Edit: Another of my favourite moments was the marquee at the theatre when Dave and his friends were leaving it: The Spirit 3

Yeah, that was pretty funny.

 

[JacksonArcher]

Edit: Another of my favourite moments was the marquee at the theatre when Dave and his friends were leaving it: The Spirit 3

Yeah, that was pretty funny.

Complain about jetpacks all you want, but that one moment ruined the realism of the movie for me.

 

[Broccoli]

^ Touche.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I didn't have a problem with the Jet pack although my best friend and I did comment about it losing the realism of the film but then again "Kick-Ass" does take place in a fictional reality so it doesn't really matter. I'm not sure I mentioned this in my other posts on the film but my favorite scene is when Hit-Girl returns to save Kick-Ass and kills all the mob thugs torturing her dad and Dave. It was a great scene and it got a big kick out of the audience too. Everyone was cheering and clapping. The use of John Murphy's Sunshine track "Kaneda's Death Part II" was awesome and emotion invoking. I shed some tears and the woman next to me was crying as well haha.

 

[Trekker4747]

Kick-Ass

Rated: R

My Grade: B+

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Kick-Ass is a very interesting movie in that it's a movie where the main character isn't the character you most want to see.

The movie centers around Dave, a fairly typical teenage boy who has a decent group of firends, is invisible to girls, and is into comic books. He wonders aloud to his friends one-day why there are no real-life costumed heroes. Obviously radioactive spiders, supermen from other galaxies, and wonderous battle-suits do not exsist but why aren't there excentric men out there who just go around and kick bad guy's asses like Batman does? Because he'd get his ass handed to him and killed his friends answer.

Not detered, Dave orders a SCUBA diving suit online, dons it, a mask, and some work boots and gloves and ventures out to the cold, mean, streets to fight bad guys and promptly ends up in traction at the hospital where months later he gains the "super" powers of metal plates and screws in his bones and dead nerve endings preventing him from feeling pain. Go.. him?

He ventures back out, this time he runs into two other costumed heroes, Big Daddy (a framed and disgraced police officer dressed as a Batman wanna be) and Hit Girl (an 11 year old girl dressed as a pun-rocker school-girl from Hell) who are a little more adept at costumed crime-fighting. These two are the highlight of the movie as the trio works to take down the city's mob king pin.

This movie feels like two completely different movies jammed together. In one movie we have this nerdy loser who acomplishes nothing in his early quests to be a superhero (other than being a YouTube sensation) who serves as our narrator and is involved with a side-plot of trying to win over the hot-girl in school who thinks he is gay. This movie feels like a cross between Spider-man and Wacky Irreverant Teen Love Comedy of the season. It's banal, predictable, and "cute" but ultimately uninteresting. This is the movie advertised to us in theaters and on TV.

Then we have ther other movie. This movie that's an irreverant send-up to comic books that takes palce in semi-mundane world and features an 11-year-old girl dropping "c-bombs" and killing mob guys like she's The Bride in the Kill-Bill movies. This is the movie advertised in the "Red Square" trailers seen online and closer to what the movie "is" and should've been. This movie is wacky, and frankly, Hit-Girl kicks ass. And in 7-8 years will be totally hot in ways God never intended. Their story is so much more interesting they even get a neat little animated back-story segment in the movie. It's strange to watch as this really seems like two different movies forced into being one movie. The stars and main characters of this movie really are Hit Girl and Big Daddy. Kick-Ass is a glorified secondary character who happens to have the movie centered around him, it's as if you watched a "Batman" movie that had more interesting scenes and focus on the lead villian than Batman himself.

Oh... wait.

Anyway, this movie is certainly well-worth seeing and a lot of fun but only for the Hit-Girl/Big Daddy scenes, less so the scenes centered around Kick-Ass (though his friend is played by the usualy funny Calrk Duke and the funny Christopher Mintz-Plasse has a good role too.) I dunno, if/when the sequel comes out they either need to make Kick-Ass a more interesting character or drop him altogether and just focus on Hit-Girl. I laughed out-loud and loved the action scenes but only the ones involving Hit-Girl. Still, a movie worth seeing.

 

[Admiral_Young]

^ There are no set plans for a sequel yet nor do they intend on doing one according to Vaughan but Millar has stated that if they were going to do one he'd focus on the criminals taking supervillain persona's and Hit-Girl trying to cope with living a normal life. Book Two of the comic is called "Kick-Ass: Balls Out" and the first issue is supposed to hit stands sometime this summer so we'll see what happens.

 

[DarthPipes]

Great review Trekker4747 and very true. It was amazing how as the movie went on, Kick Ass was pushed to the side and Hit Girl became the central character. Definitely a different and refreshing way to do a movie.

 

[JacksonArcher]

I agree with the sentiment that Kick-Ass felt like two different stories merged into one. That's also quite indicative of how the story came together. Mark Millar was originally developing a story solely featuring Big Daddy & Hit Girl but when he came up with the Kick-Ass concept, he decided to merge the two together.

I will also agree that the Big Daddy/Hit Girl segments were the most interesting parts of the film, however I think they work partially because they have a certain amount of screentime. I think if they were in the film more, it would have slightly diluted the appeal of the characters.

 

[Warped9]

I plan on seeing this tomorrow.

 

[chrisspringob]

I agree that it felt like two movies mashed into one, but in a good way. Many of my favorite movies involve the unconventional blending of different genres together, such as "The American Astronaut" and "Bubba Ho-tep".