3 out of 5 stars
It took some effort for me to reach
Kick-Ass. I made a few attempts at some advance screenings, but failed to arrive on time and there weren’t any nearby theatres that were showing the flick. It remained out of my grasp before it arrived at Blockbuster. One of the very few perks working at such a primitive establishment was being able to rent movies one week prior to their release date. Therefore, the week of July 26, 2010, I giddily wrapped my hands around a copy of
Kick-Ass. Mere minutes after viewing it, I found myself rushing over to my nearest retail store to reserve a copy.
I had practically given up hope on
Kick-Ass 2 when Matthew Vaughn (co-writer and director of
Kick-Ass) hit it big with
X-Men: First Class, but thankfully Vaughn and his production company pulled it together and got someone else to take over the reins of
Kick-Ass 2 while he busied himself with
X-Men: Days of Future Past (which he would eventually leave anyway) and that person was Jeff Wadlow. Upon receiving the job, Wadlow revealed himself to be extremely enthusiastic, with a deep admiration for the previous movie and the source material. I felt secure that the flick was in good hands.
Kick-Ass 2 picks up after the first installment, with Mindy Macready/Hit-Girl (Chloe Grace-Moretz) in the custody of Marcus Williams (Morris Chestnut), a cop and close friend of the late Damon Macready/Big Daddy. Much to her chagrin, Mindy must begin attending high school. However, instead of actually attending the high school that Marcus drops her off at everyday, Mindy would rather train Dave Lizewski/ Kick-Ass (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) in her own version of the Batcave or patrol the streets as Hit-Girl. Though reluctant at first to give up her crime fighting ways, she eventually complies with her foster dad’s wishes and sets to work on the difficult challenge of becoming a normal girl. Without Hit-Girl’s company and guidance, Kick-Ass begins looking for others like himself and is finally able to join a team of costumed vigilantes known as Justice Forever, led by Colonel Stars and Stripes (Jim Carrey). Unfortunately, as heroes emerge, so do villains. Seeking vengeance on Kick-Ass for the death of his father, the misguided Chris D’Amico, now going by the moniker of the Mother F*cker, (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) puts together a team of supervillains in the attempt to destroy everything that is Kick-Ass.
For sanity’s sake, I won’t be making too many comparisons with its comic book source material, leaning more so towards the previous installment in the franchise mostly because it’s kinda become its own beast, as most adaptations do. What did I love about the first
Kick-Ass? The movie is so unapologetically adult in its use of violence and language, most of it from an 11-year-old girl. And I’ve never been one for gore, but it was easily accessible with this flick because of the almost humorous take on such horrendous atrocities carried out by a little girl. It was brilliantly ironic, but admittedly it was lost on me for a bit, as I was far too much fun taking it at face value the first few times. Lastly and most importantly, at the core of it, there’s a fair amount of genuine heart in there, without it being too forceful or too dramatic. How did
Kick-Ass 2 measure up? Well, they’ve amplified everything and turned it up to 11, which worked for most of it, but not all.
For the most part, Wadlow succeeds in mimicking the style and tone of the first movie making for a great visit back into that universe. In fact, he managed to escalate some of the more fun aspects of the previous movie. It’s more balls-to-the-wall than the previous installment, almost becoming gratuitous in its depiction of various bodily fluids, sex, and of course, gore. As much as I prefer the first installment, I have to admit that I had much more fun on this one. With that being said,
Kick-Ass 2 is much more thrilling and action-packed than its predecessor, it just wasn’t quite as clever as the first one. Though it made for a good time, Wadlow pumped it up so much that a lot of the irony of the previous installment was lost, making it more so mindless entertainment. Some people may find it inexcusable, but I was far too entertained to maintain any gripes and in the end, it just seemed like Wadlow got lost in his own fun, which I can’t say is a bad thing.
What also impressed me was that Wadlow somehow managed to make the movie look so much more expensive despite having a budget that was equal to the budget of the first movie. That’s got to be an accomplishment, because some of the sequences in the flick looked mighty expensive. For those of you who have read the comic book, I can specifically pinpoint the Mother Russia Neighborhood Slaughter sequence as being especially spectacular. (I should warn the comic book readers that though it doesn’t quite shy away from the gore, Wadlow took some practical liberties with the source material and toned down some of the more grotesque images from the book.)
It seems from the very beginning, Wadlow went in with the full intention of packing a bigger and more powerful punch than the previous flick. In doing so, he successfully made the flick more entertaining and more thrilling. However, it turns out that you can’t use that same formula on everything. What made the more dramatic stuff in the first movie work was how genuine it felt. It never really felt forceful in any way, because it took a lighthearted approach to a lot of the material, but when it did get heavy, it was justified. If Vaughn managed to make me feel something despite Nicolas Cage’s terrible acting, then something was done right. Wadlow, however, felt the need to intensify the more dramatic scenes in this movie, which resulted in the dramatic scenes becoming stagy. Those scenes were laid on so thickly that it actually felt like a director overcompensating for the fact that the script had a 37-year-old man trying to write for a 15-year-old girl. Most notably in what was supposed to be a touching scene between the Mindy and Dave, in the latter’s bedroom. It’s not to say that he messed up every emotional scene, because I know my eyes got a little glassy at a few scenes that justified the heavy-hand.
Here’s the skinny:
Kick-Ass 2 succeeds in amping up pretty much everything that made the first
Kick-Ass incredibly fun and executed it in a deceptive way that made it seem more expensive, when it wasn’t. However, in doing so, a lot of the cleverness and irony of the previous installment was lost. Additionally, writer/director Jeff Wadlow took the same approach when handling some of the dramatic scenes by making them more so overdramatic, causing more eyes to roll than to well up with tears. But those scenes were few and far between. Though the cleverness and genuine heart are crucial for a good follow-up to
Kick-Ass, I can waive it off simply because of how much more fun I had from this sequel, but that’s just one man’s opinion.