As summer winds down, the last of the summer popcorn films hits theaters during the dog days of August. Back in 2010, Kick-Ass hit theaters with a bang. It was both original, bold and in your face with its graphic nature and not so typical portrayal of a pre-teen girl. Based on the popular comic book series by Mark Millar, Kick-Ass made just under 50 million domestically. A success by all accounts because it cost about half that. Fast forward to 2013 and Kick-Ass 2is set to at least match its predecessor. But that’s about all it may end up doing.
This second installment although enjoyable in certain parts, it fails to measure up to the original. There was a charm to the first film that is missing in the second. In many ways KA was a coming of age film for the character Dave (Kick-Ass played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson ), who was an awkward and somewhat invisible high school teenager who decided to be a DIY superhero. With this sequel, it’s Mindy’s (Hit Girl played by Chloë Grace Moretz) turn. And while she continues to steal every scene she is in as she did in the first film, here in KA2 the film suffers a bit when she doesn’t appear. Furthermore, the same sassiness and taboo of having an underage potty mouth killer is no longer groundbreaking. Now she is a typical swearing teenager (minus the killing of course).
Even Jim Carrey in a minor role as Capt. Stars leader of the Justice Force (a group of crime fighting civilians) doesn’t do much or have much to do to hold ones interest long enough. It makes me appreciate Nicolas Cage’s way over top Big Daddy role in KA even more than I did before.
While both have hung up their superhero costumes for various reasons they still long for the days of kicking ass (no pun intended) and taking names. Enter the villain formally known as Red Mist (played by Christopher Mintz-Plasse) and now known as The Mother—–r. The first time I heard it, I laughed. By the tenth time, I started to cringe. He creates his own Axis of Evil baddies with one objective, kill Kick-Ass.
The climax of the film was worth watching but too little too late and by then, anti-climatic. The shocking and quite often stomach turning gore and carnage from Part 1, doesn’t shock us as much here. You can see coming a mile away and it takes away from the funny aspect of it. Given how it ended, and this is not a spoiler, I can see a Part 3 in the not too distant future. Hopefully it will come full circle and be as good as the one that started it all.
**1/2 (out of 4)
May the Dork be with you,
JPB
The Dork Knight
