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.

Spiderman 3 (Review)

I like Spiderman for pretty much for the same reasons everyone else likes him: He's very easy to relate to and he makes mistakes. I enjoyed the first two Spiderman movies. They were fun, exciting, well-written movies that served as grade A examples of how superhero movies can be done. The third film is almost as good but it misses its mark by being a little too...busy. Part of the problem comes from the film featuring three antagonists instead of just one or two. The Sandman is pretty cool or at least the special effects used for him are cool. I never really found him to be a memorable foe in the comics and I must be one of the few people who wasn't bothered by the film making him Uncle Ben's killer. He was just a normal criminal when he killed Ben so it's not like Peter still couldn't have done anything stop him. Harry Osborn taking up the mantle of Green Goblin is fun even though it happens a bit too soon in the series for my tastes. At least it gives actor James Franco more to do this time. Finally the big fish in this villain buffet is Venom, who was pretty much guaranteed to appear when it was revealed that the symbiote would be play a role in the plot. I would have preferred that they held off on Venom for the inevitable sequel as he's just too cool and popular to share the spotlight with another baddie.

The other thing that makes the storyline here overstuffed is the continued and completely unneeded romantic drama between Peter and Mary Jane. Spiderman 2 pretty much had the two where they needed to be as they were together and M.J. knew Peter was Spiderman. In other continuities Mary Jane and Peter get together and M.J. acts as strong supporter for Peter and his problems. They had a strong relationship and pretty much only had minor typical rough patches. It's confusing to me why they felt this movie needed more drama when there's already so much stuff going on.

Even though the movie packs in a bit too much, it's still executed extremely well. Peter wearing the symbiote suit fuels some of the humor as we see him become a huge twat and the situation only becomes irritating during the kinda funny but completely retarded dance sequence. The fight scenes are wonderfully choreographed, one of my favorites being the Sandman fight in the sewer/train track tunnel. The final battle is the highlight as brings together all aspects of the story and wraps them up in a satisfying way. I enjoyed Spiderman 3, not as much as the other two but I believe it does a great job of concluding the over-arching storyline. There's a fourth movie coming, but I'm not really looking forward to it as superhero series don't really do so well after three movies... oh well at least these first three films were good.