Movie Review – Kick-Ass 2

The summer blockbuster season is almost over, but there should still be one movie on every nerd’s radar: Kick-Ass 2. As a comic reader myself, I’m somewhat harsh on comic book movies. I was not a fan of the new Wolverine movie (even though I love Hugh Jackman as the title character), and I really did not like how the first Kick-Ass ended. So how did Kick-Ass 2 fair in my book?

I liked Kick-Ass 2. I liked it for its simplicity. I liked it for its humor. I liked it for its actors and characters. The heroes in the movie are heroes because they want to be heroes. The villains in the movie are villains because they want to be villains. That’s pretty much it, no complicated and elaborate plots by the villains, no series of betrayals, no false flag terrorism or getting caught “on purpose”. This simplicity just allows us to view the characters as they begin to deal with the consequences of the paths they choose, and that’s really the main theme of the movie. There are only a few major twists and turns, but really most of the major scenes are in the trailers and commercials already.

The comedy is up-to-par, usually paired with scenes of extreme violence that are just so over the top that it’s funny. While there are a handful of “dramatic” deaths, most of the kills you see really play it up with the one liners, gore and just shear improbably, almost like watching a Fatality from Mortal Kombat. Ultimately a lot of these deaths (or in some cases, the final comeuppance when outright killing wouldn’t be acceptable) are extremely satisfying because they do such a great job of setting up the villains/henchmen/mean girls as deserving of whatever punishment they get.

Watching the first movie or at least reading the first comic series before seeing this movie is recommended, as they kind of jump right into the characters as if you already know who they are (Kick-Ass, Hit-Girl and Red Mist in particular). I brought a friend who had not seen the first movie, so if you do plan on seeing this (which I recommend), I advise that you at least see the original movie first (and luckily most of the same actors return).

Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Kick-Ass and Chloe Grace Moretz as Hit-Girl do a great job as their characters. I really liked Christopher Mintz-Plasse as The Motherfucker, but you only get a handful of scenes with him and his villains. That’s too bad because I loved everyone of the villains appearances in the film and wish  could’ve seen more of them, particularly John Leguizamo. Jim Carrey was another actor who played an interesting character well, and I wish we could’ve gotten more of his performance (as well as more background on a few of the other heroes).

All in all, a good movie, very entertaining and easily my favorite comic book based movie of the summer. Much better than the original, I recommend checking it out (but at least be familiar with first movie or comic book run). The movie comes out during the weekend of Gen Con Indy, so maybe a few of us can see it then.

Later, BroZ!