Kick-Ass has a lot going for it, and it's a very enjoyable film. It starts off very well, with Aaron Johnson's Dave Lizewski deciding to experiment with crime fighting. At first he's beaten to a pulp and given metal appendages, but he improves with practice and becomes a phenomenon as "Kick-Ass." Johnson is an appealing actor in the Jesse Eisenberg/Michael Cera vein, but he gets the rug pulled out from under him in this film by Hit Girl (Chloe Moretz) and Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage), and in more ways than one. A daughter-father combination of crime fighters, not only are they better crime fighters than Kick-Ass, but they're also more fun to watch. Who doesn't want to watch a twelve-year-old girl shoot a bunch of guys? And who doesn't want to watch Nicolas Cage being a total badass? Cage may make some stupid career moves, but this definitely is not one of them.
As I've insinuated, it's Moretz's film to steal, and she does it admirably. Watching her all I could think was, "Why isn't Dakota Fanning doing movies like this?" The novelty of her character and the sheer fun she has playing her are what make the film a fun ride.
Now, on to the issue of the film's "moral reprehensibility." I know a thing or two about this, because last night when I was seeing the Hypocrites' brilliant new production of Cabaret, an old woman got really pissed off at me for picking my nose, saying it was "socially unacceptable." But getting back to the point, some critics have derided Kick-Ass for being violent. Roger Ebert, in an unusually bizarre review, was angered by the film's low regard for human life, since Hit Girl kills several thugs without a shred of remorse. I like Ebert's writing, but I really can't explain this. He gave Watchmen four stars, and that had far more cringe-worthy action than this. And does anybody really think that little girls are going to see this film and go "I want to kill people now?" Enough violent movies get made so that people shouldn't have to worry about one making any real difference.
I think there's another issue with the violence which most critics haven't picked up on: it's inconsistent. Kick-Ass is a film about the difficulties of being a superhero in a world which doesn't have any. So at the beginning of the film, Kick-Ass is beaten to a pulp. And I would have liked for the violence to take that sort of gritty tone. Had Don Siegel or John Boorman directed Kick-Ass, no one would be complaining about the violence because not only would they have found clever ways to indicate it, but it would have been consistently realistic. Siegel would never have Hit Girl running up walls shooting people in slow motion. That was where I turned off my brain cells and went to the bathroom. Even though I was enjoying the film, I was disappointed that it went for violent excess instead of in-your-face realism. Then again, it's a comic book, so realism doesn't exactly apply.
I'd like to add that the film contained one of my favorite movie moments in this past year. When Hit Girl goes into the lobby of the building to kill all the thugs at the end of the movie, the music behind her is Ennio Morricone's theme from For a Few Dollars More. I then wondered what it would be like if Sergio Leone made a comic book movie. Now that would kick ass.
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