Early Review: Kick-Ass

Dylan and I had the opportunity to watch an advance screening of Kick-Ass last week. Take Spider-Man, toss in some of Adam West's Batman, and give the whole thing some Tarantino sensibilities - this is Kick-Ass. Is that a good thing? Should you watch it?

More after the jump!

Hell yes, watch it.

Directed by Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake) and based on the comic series by Mark Millar (Wanted, Ultimates), Kick-Ass takes the conventional hero's journey and plays with some of the classic conventions in superhero storytelling. Sacred elements of this genre are intentionally absent in this origin story; there's no catalyzing tragic event, no morally-upright mentor figure, and no clean lines dividing the good guys from the evil-doers.

In fact, Kick-Ass is an ultimate rejection of the classic hero. Yesterday's hero figure was tough, courageous, and gifted with extraordinary talents. Superman, James Bond, and Indiana Jones conform perfectly. When Spider-Man hit theaters, the mainstream movie superhero started to change. The stories became about ordinary individuals trying to live up to that old archetype. Peter Parker reflects this transition; today's hero is more sensitive than tough, more genuinely afraid than courageous, and more burdened than blessed by the traits that make him exceptional. In many ways, Kick-Ass takes this idea to its extreme with Dave Lizewski. Dave is so sensitive, so unheroic, and so contemplative that the love interest spends most of the movie believing Dave is her gay BFF. 

If Peter Parker shows that the Superman archetype if a lofty ideal, Dave Lizewski does the same thing to Peter Parker. Dave is supposed to be an even more honest representation of the everyman than Peter Parker - the wholesomeness in Spider-Man is completely gone in Kick-Ass. Dave curses, masturbates chronically, and his romantic pursuits are initially motivated more by lust than anything resembling love. In essence, he's a dorky teenage guy as we've come to perceive a dorky teenage guy would be in reality. 

And this seems to be the essential point of Kick-Ass - it's every dork's fantasy fulfilled. A normal guy with no special talents becomes a superhero, gains the loving admiration of the public, gets a ridiculously hot girlfriend, and defeats a sinister kingpin. Weave it together with a satirical vengeance subplot paying homage to Batman and Robin, and Kick-Ass is a nerd's wet dream.

There is, however, one major problem I had with Kick-Ass. As a movie, it's excellently-paced, funny, and cheerful. Even if the plot is a little self-indulgent, Aaron Johnson plays a really likable Dave Lizewski that you want to see this fantasy fulfilled anyway. Matthew Vaughn proves again that he's a very capable director. My problem is with Mark Millar's story.

Again, Kick-Ass wouldn't work if Dave Lizewski was unlikable. Moreover, Dave's archetype wouldn't work if Dave was a bad person. This is why I was glad to see that Dave doesn't kill criminals for most of the movie, even though the other superhero characters in his world are killers. It sets Dave apart from the other 'good guys' throughout the movie; it fits his character, and fits with his own genuine fear of death. I liked believing that he was a genuinely good person interrupting a system in which even the superheroes were morally-compromised killers...

....Which is why I was extremely disappointed to see Dave become an unflinching killer in the last minutes of the movie. Even though the sum of the movie's parts is far less wholesome than something like Spider-Man, Dave's morality is kept pristine throughout. Early on, the story takes extra care not to turn Dave into a killer - even to the extent that it relies on a little girl to do the killing for him at crucial moments. When Dave suddenly starts killing bad guys in the end of the movie, there's no trigger or turning point in the story that tells the audience why Dave's changed his policy on killing. It just happens, and the movie celebrates this sudden shift - the hilarious final battle sequence is the emotional climax of the movie.

And therein lies the problem. Millar's an incredibly talented writer who gave the world the best Avengers story ever told (a story that didn't even have Avengers in the title). The problem I have with a lot of Millar's stories is that he dedicates himself to being 'fresh' through shock and awe. He pushes the envelope on sex, violence, and other controversial elements to shock people into believing they are reading or watching a more clever and 'mature' superhero story. Wanted hid an incredibly thin, self-indulgent plot behind flashy CGI bullets, excessive gore, and Angelina Jolie's gargantuan lips. With Kick-Ass, there is an excellent superhero story being hampered by an unjustified shift in character. Dave's sudden ability to kill without remorse is a poor excuse for trying to achieve 'mature' character growth. 

A good story doesn't need over-the-top violence to be mature, and a hero doesn't need to kill to be complicated. (See right)

Watchmen wasn't praised for having adult content; it was praised for how that content was conveying a literary message (something which the film adaptation missed entirely). With Kick-Ass, I wouldn't have an issue if the movie had proven to me that Dave's turn as a brutal killer was for reasons beyond simply needing some violently-epic eye candy to end the movie.

Go see Kick-Ass and have a blast, but don't buy all the hype calling it the best superhero movie ever made. 

-Aaron-