Kick-Ass

I went with some friends to see Kick-Ass last week, and we left with wide grins upon our faces. I assume the “I saw Kick-Ass, it was kick ass!” joke has been done to death by now...so I'll have to find another way to describe my enjoyment of the movie. It’s a little hard to call superhero stories original nowadays, as the “what if superheroes were real?” thing has been done at least twice before within the past two years. Watchmen was just dudes in costumes in a gritty world that also happened to have a diabolical mastermind and a naked blue god involved, while Hancock seemed to be aiming for this vibe until it threw in the superheroine and it became more like some silly magic/fantasy thing going on. Of course, they’re both depressingly serious, so Kick-Ass instead focuses on the light-hearted and bare basics of superheroes: Cheap costumes, crazy characters, and kicking ass. My friends and I have discussed the whole serious-superheroes-versus-silly-superheroes thing before and I guess I can’t deny that I’m a bit more about the silly side of it.

So, yeah, some kid decides to become a superhero by wearing a scuba suit and wielding sticks, and happens to spawn a wave of imitators who, although substantially more badass than him, end up getting him into trouble via proxy, with all manner of gangster dealings going on. There’s some mandatory drama, mostly some mild angst over the hero revealing his identity to his lover, and the dangerous activities Big Daddy and Hit-Girl get up to, particularly when one of the characters dies, but for the most part the movie merely revels in silliness, outrageously brutal violence, and a rather immature love of swearing. I mean, I'm largely immune to and partake in immature swearing, but this one throws cunts and fucks around enough that makes it looks like it’s trying to impress someone. I feel my skills at describing just how joyous this movie was is beyond my writing capabilities. There are people shot in the face with reckless abandon, there is a moustached man doing an Adam West impersonation, and a jetpack is involved. It’s pretty freakin’ glorious, personally.