Kick-Ass is the film based on the comic book about a teenager who reads, and then emulates, super-hero comics. Ostensibly based in the real world, where radioactive spiders are either non-existent or worse, cancer-causing, Kick-Ass takes a half-honest look at what would happen if the decades-old dork query, “What if I became a costumed vigilante?” became a reality.
The fed-up teenager who finally fulfills his crime-fighting fantasy is the quiet, exceptionally average Dave, played with anonymous anti-charisma by Aaron Johnson. It isn’t until he dons his online-ordered green and yellow Tron/ninja suit that his character becomes interesting. At first, he trains amateur style in back alleys and rooftops, wandering the streets at night looking for wrongs to right, be they lost kitties or a four-on-one beat down. These interventions are often humorous, as his ridiculous costume and nerdy heroics are usually met with mocking laughter followed by beatings. Despite some shortcomings, Kick-Ass’s valor is quickly caught on cell phones and posted on YouTube, catapulting Dave’s alter-ego to stardom.
That’s where the realism ends, however, lest this comedy turn tragic and quick. As well as Kick-Ass, other more secretive, more capable, better funded, and less realistic vigilantes lurk in the shadows. Nick Cage plays Damon Macready/Big Daddy, basically Batman, whose 11-year-old daughter Mindy/Hit-Girl steals every scene she’s in. The obligatory, slightly more believable, arch-nemesis is mob boss (sorry, respected businessman) Frank D’Amico (Sherlock Holmes’ Mark Strong) whose 17-year-old son (Superbad’s Mintz-Plasse) desperately wants to be involved in the family business and thus closer to dad.
Kick-Ass’s teen troubles (mainly, his crushes and disparaging rumors of his sexuality) lack much punch (eh?), adding length to the already too long 117-minute run time. With the way the film plays out, Kick-Ass himself would’ve made a better supporting character to Hit-Girl’s main story, rather than the other way around. The film is at its best when the heroes are forced to action, and no one lives up to the film’s title better than Hit-Girl.
Somehow, amidst some overused narration and a pretty blah protagonist, Kick-Ass has some very exciting moments that evoke everything from cringing winces to involuntary bursts of laughter.
