Kick-Ass

As the title implies, Kick-Ass is all about violence, comic book violence. No surprise here, since it’s another comic book movie. But don’t expect it to be total fun and fancy free here.

There’s this guy, Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson), who wonders why no one’s ever decided to be a superhero. He decides to do it himself, under the name of Kick-Ass. After a rocky start, to say the least, he finally becomes an internet sensation and a crime fighter.

Then these two show up: Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) and his daughter Hit Girl (Chloe Grace Moretz). They’re out to get the evil Frank (Mark Strong), and they get Kick-Ass involved. And there’s more violence.

Yes, there’s action involved. And these scenes are well-done, both in editing and choreography. It’s the type of action you’d expect in a comic book.

In the case of Watchmen last year, you knew right away that it was a dark, neo-noir comic book movie. But here, it starts as a raunchy comic book movie and goes darker along the way. As in “treats physical violence far seriously darker.” It’s rather jarring, and it might put off its audience a bit.

When the film’s not that brutal, it’s at its best. It’s really at its best when Big Daddy and Hit Girl are on screen. As B.D., Cage is delightfully eccentric; as H.G., Moretz fully realizes her as the sanest of these “heroes.”

My final word on Kick-Ass is that if you can stand the violence, you can have some fun. It’s not in any shape or form for the prude, that’s for sure.