KICK ASS
Since Action Comics released “Superman” in the 1938, super powered beings who fight crime and rescue damsels in distress have been an integral part of American culture. Today comic book sales rake in close to 10 million dollars, and the box office numbers for super hero movies average 300 million. With all of the lore and drama of these heroes penetrating our lives, why hasn’t anyone ever tried to be one in real life? That is the question that teenager Dave Lizewski asks his friends in Kick Ass. What follows is a light hearted, yet all too real look at the reasons why you shouldn’t try this at home.
Kick Ass was originally a comic created my Mark Millar in 2008. The comic was unique as not only did his main character not have any super powers, but he rather sucked at the whole crime fighting business to begin. The comic launched with a viral campaign with a YouTube video of a costumed hero defending some poor sap. Later a MySpace page was launched telling viewers that Millar was writing a comic book based on the vigilante’s adventures. Comic book stores that sold the most copies of Kick Ass were actually featured in the later issues and even a charity auction was held to determine the name of Kick Ass’ secret identity. The winner, Dave Lizewski chose his own name. (Figures. I woulda). The series lasted only eight issues and fans everywhere were hungry for more. Scriptwriting for the film began almost immediately and rumors have it that Millar plans a sequel that will be released in 2011.
The movie centers on Dave Lizewski, (played by Aaron Johnson) your typical geek teenager; he spends most of his days reading comics and fantasizing about his busty math teacher. One day Dave asks his geek friends why no one has ever tried to be a real life super hero. They laugh at him and explain that such a person would definitely get his ass kicked. Dave continues to explore his fantasy by purchasing a green scuba suit and parading around as a masked vigilante named Kick Ass. However his first foray into crime fighting ends quite poorly and Dave is sent to the hospital for major surgery.
In a way, his misfortunes give him some new advantages to fighting crime. He now has several metal plates throughout his body (To which he gleefully compares to Wolverine) and his nerve ending have been dulled. Dave also gains the sympathy of the fetching and longtime crush Katie Deauxma, who is surprisingly interested in him. Katie thinks he is gay and she wants to take care of him. Dave goes along with this in an effort to spend time with her.
Bound and determined to be a crime fighter, Dave dons his costume once again and hits the streets. One evening while trying to rescue a cat, Kick Ass stumbles onto a mugging. Armed with two steel pipes he manages to fight off the attackers while onlookers grab video and pictures. One such video is uploaded to YouTube and quickly gains over 4 million hits. Excited about his new found fame, Dave sets up a MySpace page for his alter ego and soon Kick Ass is an overnight sensation.
Everything seemed to be going Dave’s way until…while speaking with Katie he learns that she was once harassed by a local drug dealer and how she wishes Kick Ass would make him go away. In an attempt to win the heart of his lady love, Dave confronts the drug dealer and his crew. The dealer quickly gets the upper hand on Kick Ass and it looks like it might be the end for our hero. That is until he is rescued (in quite the bad ass of ways) by Hit Girl (Chloë Grace Moretz, soon to be Abby in the American Let Her In) and her mentor Big Daddy (Nicholas Cage). In a moment of clarity, Dave realizes that he is in way over his head; these guys were pros and he is not. He runs home only to find them waiting for him. Big Daddy explains that he traced his IP address off his My Space account, and finding him was way too easy. Big Daddy admires Kick Ass for his potential and encourages him to stay in touch should he ever need help.
Meanwhile a local crime syndicate leader Frank D’Amico, believes that Kick Ass is responsible for a thefts of his drugs and losses of several of his gang members. He orders the kick and swift elimination of Kick Ass. Later a second super hero named Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse aka McLovin. Sorry, I’m always gonna call him McLovin) contacts Kick Ass and asks if he can be his sidekick. The four heroes cross paths again as they find themselves on the offensive against D’Amico and his gang.
Kick Ass is NOT your typical super hero movie, and that is why I feel it will go down as one of the all-time greats in the genre. Yes on the surface it’s an action movie, with lots of bad ass fight scenes and things blowing up. But underneath its surface is where you find the real beauty of what Millar was trying to say. For one, the story really deals with the awkwardness of growing up. I can relate to Dave and his struggles of being accepted. Who didn’t fantasize about rescuing the hot girl they had a crush on and potentially winning her heart? And in some ways playing Champions with my friends after school was the same kind of release that I needed; just that dice and paper didn’t hurt nearly as much. As a movie fan, it was this part of the story that I enjoyed the most and found the most interesting.
Secondly, there is deep social commentary littered throughout the film. For example, what do all the people in the coffee shop do while Kick Ass is desperately trying to fend off four muggers? They grab their cell phones and start taking pictures and movies of course. Nobody dares come out and rescue the nut job in tights. Later something grisly is shown on the local news. The TV stations stop broadcasting but strategically tell their viewers you can still watch this on the internet. People RUN to their computers in hopes that they didn’t miss out on anything. Proof that we’d much rather watch the carnage than do the right thing. Hey a comic movie with a message, I can dig that! Sadly, I’m not so sure everyone got that, but John, Hilden and I sure did.
The performances in the movie were all quite good. Even Nick’s Cage’s performance of Big Daddy was good. Big Daddy is obviously a fan of the original Batman. His actions, planning and even Adam West style speech patterns show homage to the character. In a dramatic warehouse scene Nick Cage really shines; in a performance that is both cool and chilling at the same time. John made a comment that he couldn’t believe that he saw a film that Nicholas Cage didn’t destroy. Nicely put John.
Kick Ass certainly isn’t without some flaws. As a fan of the comic I was disappointed (mildly) in the Red Mist storyline. Not enough time was taken to really flush out the relationship between Red Mist and Kick Ass, and the reveal of who Red Mist is happened far too quickly and could have been handled differently. Second, the film has much more of a Hollywood approach and ending. Things end quite badly for Dave in the comic, as if Millar was suggesting that nothing good could ever really come from pulling this stunt. I appreciate storytelling that takes risks like that. Hollywood does from time to time, but not in this movie. Moviegoers will certainly feel good when they are done seeing the film, but might I suggest you pick up the comics and give them a read for a quite different take.
Lastly, Kick Ass is rated R and for a good reason. This is NOT a movie for kids. To be real, the film is quite graphic and has strong sexual content. I am sure some parents might bring their kids to see this show thinking they are getting Spiderman or something benign like that.
All that being said, Kick Ass is a hell of a movie, and a great way to kick off the onslaught of summer movies (albeit perhaps a tad early). Not only that, it’s one of the few films that really lives up to its title; this film kicked a ton of ass!
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Tags: Big Daddy, comics, Geeks, Hit Girl, kick-ass, McLovin, Nick Cage, Red Mist, Super Heroes
April 19th, 2010 at 9:17 am
I loved the hell out of this movie. I’d go so far as to say that it was better than the comic; and I LOVED the comic. But I’m mostly just relieved that Nicolas Cage didn’t ruin it.
April 19th, 2010 at 11:14 am
I saw it Friday, and I didn’t quite get where all the glowing reviews were coming from. Many a review claimed that this is the new benchmark for comic book movies. Well, that is a load of shit, but it was still….serviceable. The jet pack scene made me cringe. Good note: Nic Cage didn’t make me want to cut my wrists in the theater.
and Hit Girl was the best part.
April 19th, 2010 at 11:56 am
It made you cringe? What, was it too absurd for this movie?
April 19th, 2010 at 1:23 pm
The comic was all about an everyday normal dude surrounded by over the top characters. Everything about the supporting cast is absurd but Kick Ass remains boring and inept. He is a loser, and more importantly, as normal and humanly realistic as anyone in a scuba costume can be. The only thing heroic about him is his ambition. He has no skills, no special powers, no luck, nothing. Yet the movie made him out to be a superhero in the end. It felt out of character and really out of place.
The way I read the book, was obviously from Kick Ass’s point of view, was that if you do go out and dress like a superhero and try to stop crime, you will fail. Horribly. The ending made him seem like Iron Man or someone. The Jet Pack didn’t mesh with that character, IMO. In the comic, Kick Ass didn’t swoop in to save the day. He had to rely on Hit Girl to continuously bail his ass out, barring one occasion, but even that was a battle of two people who didn’t know what the hell they were doing and both got their asses kicked.
I think I read somewhere that this movie was optioned before the comic had really been written. So I think that is why the first 20 or so minutes of the movie were nearly EXACTLY the same, but afterwards, the movie veered off. Same results, but a different journey to the end.
April 19th, 2010 at 2:23 pm
Ah, I think you’re overanalyzing what is purposely an absurd and over-the-top flick.
It didn’t belong to him and it was one moment at the end where he actually got to do something that was bad ass. And with the absurd nature of the entire story, it didn’t feel at all ridiculous to me.
April 19th, 2010 at 3:19 pm
@Tyler
I am sorry the end scene made you cringe, but seriously David is NOT Tony Stark. I agree that I like the comic ending better, but this is Hollywood and so this is what you get. The three of us laughed our asses off at that scene, precisely because it was absurd. But it didn’t take away from the overall message of Millar’s work; their is no glamor in beiung a superhero. The film is littered with it, and as such I think it does set a new benchmark for comic movies, ones based on realities we don’t always think about.
I can see why you hated it, this film isn’t for everyone. Besides the real Iron Man comes out in a few weeks and maybe you’ll like that one.
April 19th, 2010 at 5:10 pm
I actually found it pretty intriguing how they connected story pieces in the movie with stuff from the comic. Example: They still end up running into a burning building in the movie, but the circumstances are completely different. Also, I was pleased Cage didn’t destroy the Big Daddy character, although I feel the writers did to an extent.
It really was an enjoyable movie to watch. An alternate telling of the story is the best way to look at it. Though only 2 things in that movie truly irritated me:
1. I was never convinced that David was capable of taking a life, no matter how scummy.
2. He shouldn’t have gotten the girl.
Also, was looking forward to the nut-shocking torture.
April 20th, 2010 at 11:11 am
Hit Girl owns this movie.
That is all.
November 14th, 2010 at 9:49 pm
Delerar said: “Also, was looking forward to the nut-shocking torture.”
I liked the new scene.
1. I liked how it was broadcast over the internet and everyone reacted to it – and when the news stopped broadcasting it everybody rushed to their computers to keep watching it
2. Instead of “nut-shocking” it was “nut-busting with a baseball bat” – so similar effect