Kick-Ass evokes mixed feelings as an excellent premise ripped from the comic book of the same name—again—fails to succeed. Featuring a disappointing cast with Nicholas Cage, Christopher Mintz-Plasse (most commonly known as McLovin) and some new comers such as Dave (Aaron Johnson) and Hit Girl (Chloë Grace Moretz).
Dave is your typical socially repressed high school student with a crush on the popular girl in school. After being mugged he chooses to wear a scuba suit and wield a pair of batons to fight crime. His first attempt at saving the day lands him in the hospital, but gains attention of superheros Big Daddy (Cage) & his foul-mouthed daughter Hit Girl (Moretz) as well as the popular girl.
Kick-Ass continues Hollywood’s love-affair of adapting comic books and graphic novels to the big screen, and again continues their chain of failures. Casting Cage and Mintz-Plasse easily reveals weaker points, especially since Cage’s performance is—as they often are—terrible.
Hit-Girl, masterfully played by Chloe Moretz, is essentially the saving grace of this film. Her foul-mouthed character continues the story and appears to be the highlight of the premise of the film. Main character Dave or Kick-Ass is adequate, nothing spectacular.
A few action sequences and fight scenes were well-done and enjoyable. Particularly Big Daddy’s assault on the lumber store and Hit Girl’s initial fight scene saving Kick-Ass from having his ass kicked.
The overall feeling of Kick-Ass is mixed and it is difficult to pin point the where things went wrong. There is an decent entertainment value, but the film is overall a miss. There is little sympathy towards the main character and predictability of Hit Girl’s return, and Kick-Ass’s return later in the ending are all disappointing and cheap. This satire features a weak message, as if a message was not highlighted or even ignored by the filmmakers.
