As of late, we’ve been subjected to one CGI, PG-13-lite, superhero flick after another, and frankly, it’s getting tiresome. That’s why it’s somewhat refreshing to see such a ridiculous, ultra-violent one like “Kick Ass 2.” There are no blatant uses of CGI, no buildings destroyed — just good, old-fashioned ass-kicking.
The original “Kick Ass” from 2010 was also fairly violent and vulgar, even causing some controversy; still, “Kick Ass 2” takes the violence and vulgarity to the next level. The movie is energetic and exhilarating, and it relishes its ultra-violence, providing the audience with giddy pleasure.
Yet, the movie does have character and story issues (specifically in the third act) and, therefore, doesn’t completely work.
A new subgenre
I wasn’t as taken with the original “Kick Ass” as a lot of other people were, but I did appreciate that it introduced a new subgenre: the Wannabe Superhero. The film’s title character Kick Ass, aka Dave (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), is your typical high school nobody. He can’t score with the girls, has few friends and spends most of his time reading superhero comics.
One day, he decides to do something with his life. He makes a superhero outfit out of green and yellow cloth and, using two regular sticks, goes around town stopping (or attempting to stop) petty criminals and becomes a YouTube sensation.
Character clichés aside, the thing I like most about Kick Ass is that he wasn’t an actual superhero but a regular guy (who’s maybe read too many comics) trying to make a difference.
Wadlow, for the most part, keeps that spirit alive in the new movie. Dave has bulked up considerably since the first outing, making him appear a little less wimpy, but he still gets his ass kicked more often than not.
This time, he joins forces with a group of fellow wannabe superheroes. There’s Dr. Gravity (Donald Faison), a fake physics teacher by day, wielder of a baseball bat that’s supposed to be a Gravity Pole by night, as well as Colonel Stars and Stripes (Jim Carrey, in an amusing and completely unrecognizable performance), a born-again Mafia hitman. Together, along with all of the other pretend crusaders, they form Justice Forever to do good in the city.
The first half the movie embraces the silliness, like during a scene where the wannabes are about to take down a gang of sex traffickers, but one of the Justice Forever members isn’t coming along because he has “Book of Mormon” tickets. This self-awareness, paired with intentionally the over-the-top violence, is what makes “Kick Ass 2” immensely entertaining.
Big flaws
A very important piece of the “Kick Ass” universe comes in the form of Mindy, better known as Hit Girl (Chloe Grace Moretz), who, since a very young age, had been taught by her father to be a ruthless assassin. She’s a teenager who trash-talks and can effortlessly beat up and kill people — to me, Hit Girl doesn’t embody that wannabe-superhero spirit.
In “Kick Ass 2,” Wadlow (who wrote the script, based off of the comic books by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.) tries to give her more depth. She decides to give up her leather suit and wig and live a normal teenage life. She befriends a group of shallow popular girls at school, and of course, they end up humiliating her, so she decides to go back to her old life.
This is where “Kick Ass 2” starts to run into problems: While this allows Hit Girl be more than one-note, Wadlow’s handling of it all is cliché.
This problem exposes an even bigger flaw associated with the entire “Kick Ass” premise. For how profane and violent it is, the movie still feels geared toward teenagers, and this juvenility holds it back. Dave is a typical teenage loser who’s essentially going through the same teenage loser problems we’ve seen before.
As for Hit Girl? It isn’t believable that a 15-year-old girl could kill people and then just be able to brush it off and continue on with a normal life. I couldn’t buy her character in the first movie, and despite Wadlow’s best efforts, I still couldn’t really buy her character in this one.
If “Kick Ass 2” is a ridiculous and silly movie, why does it matter if her character is implausible and underdeveloped? But this movie didn’t keep that silly tone. The third act abruptly switches from fun and entertaining, to dark and serious. The movie wants to have it both ways, but it simply doesn’t work: It becomes too serious for its own good, copying other dark-and-gritty superhero movies. The wannabe superheroes turn into serious action stars, essentially abandoning the thing that made “Kick Ass” refreshing in the first place.
The movie is flawed, but I was entertained during most of the movie, and it’s still a nice alternative to all of the Marvel and DC superhero films coming out.
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