Movie Review: Kick Ass

Meet “Hit Girl” an 11 year old assassin extraordinaire and a central character to the movie “Kick Ass” Of course the image above is somewhat disquieting but it belies the complex conflict and ideas within the graphic novel as well as this film. Just who would train a child to be a ruthless assassin at age 11? Well, “Big Daddy” in this case, her father and the man who don’s a pseudo Batman outfit. Of course these two are not the main characters here though, Kick-Ass is… And who is Kick-Ass? Just a regular kid in a wetsuit.

Overall, this film is VERY entertaining and both it and the graphic novel play off of the idea that we all long to be a super hero at times in our lives. Just how many times as children do we pretend to be our favorite hero? Or maybe later on in life as we read the comics or go to Halloween parties dressed as Batman and other heroes from the pages. We all have those moments and that is what this movie uses as a premise to get you hooked. How can you, just an ordinary person be “super” Kick Ass says as much himself, asking why hadn’t anyone just stepped up and tried until now? The answer he gets is that no one has super powers, but, he comes back with Batman. Batman has no super powers.. But, he is a billionaire so he can buy his tech. What Kick-Ass has is just a higher threshold for pain and a green wet suit bought on Ebay. This though, makes him even more super in the eyes of many.

For all of the impossible things that do happen in the film (a 300K jetpack with mini gatling guns) and a Bazooka scene, it all grabs you and has you thinking “Shit, that would be so cool!” in your seat while cheering Kick-Ass on. I also was impressed with a scene that they obviously thought out concerning Kick Ass’s Facebook page. He posts to it as Kick Ass and takes requests for help. Of course my first thought was “He better be using TOR, otherwise they are gonna find his ass soon!” Sure enough, the writers were smart enough to have Big Daddy mention that he had re-routed his IP to hide who he was.. After all, that was how he found him. Good on you writers for getting technical shit right!

Anyway, back to the themes, Hit Girl’s foul mouth is a little troubling at first but you get used to it as she slashes in the best of “Kill Bill” tradition through bad guy drug dealers and mobsters. All the while you will be calculating just how much it would cost for the tools they are using and the time to train yourself to be your own not so super hero incarnation. Parents beware, this is a bloody and foul mouthed film so younger audiences are discouraged.

My review: Kick-Ass KICKS ASS… See it and read the comics.

CoB