Finally, A Superhero Who Lives Up To His Name

Kick-Ass
(Matthew Vaughn, 2010)

4.5 Stars

The superhero has become something of a cliché these days, with origin stories of the likes of Spiderman, Iron Man, Batman Begins et al, cluttering our screens on a pretty much monthly basis. And what with The Avengers lined up for a few years time, Marvel Studios are set to churn out plenty more mediocre hero flicks over the next couple of summers. Even an avid comic fan such as my self is beginning to tire of it all.

As such, it’s a refreshing change of pace to see Mark Millar’s anti-hero Kick-Ass canon-balling his ultraviolent ways into our hearts.

We’ve all dreamed of being a superhero. One of the basic questions of late night pub fayre is the age-old “if you could have any super power, what would it be?”. In Kick-Ass, legendary comic book writer Millar poses the question “what if a super hero was just a kid with high hopes and pep?”. And the answer? A truly kick-ass creation is what.

Kick-Ass tells the story of Dave Lizewski, an average teenage nerd (played with aplomb by delightful young English actor Aaron Johnson) who dons a spandex suit and decides to fight crime, only to find himself way over his head as he becomes embroiled in a war between an evil drug baron and likewise anti-heroes Big Daddy (a wonderfully gung-ho Nic Cage – Con Air, The Wicker Man) and his larger than life daughter Mindy (Chloe Moretz – My Friends Tigger and Pooh). Moretz’s performance has caused some uproar in the “standards of decency” crowd, what with having an eleven year old girl swearing her boots off and slicing up gangsters like nobody’s business, but quite frankly, it’s one of the finest child actress performances I’ve seen in a very long time. Moretz steals the entire movie with her embodiment of “Hit Girl”, and is set for a fine career in the future.

What makes Kick-Ass truly outstanding though is its tongue-in-cheek humour coupled with its ultraviolent choreography. Akin to some B-Movie masterpieces of Japanese theatre, Kick-Ass relishes in its own absurdity; a super-hero movie that accepts itself for what it is, rather than trying so very hard to a serious piece of film-making as so many of these stories tend to do.

With some wonderful little cameos from some great British actors; Jason Fleyming and Dexter Fletcher to name but two, and a perfectly suited soundtrack, Kick-Ass is an action movie to redefine the entire genre. Marvel Studios, accept defeat; your ass has well and truly been kicked.