Kick-Ass...........

Kick-Ass:

Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) is a teenage geek who loves comics and is fascinated by superheroes. He asks his two best friends why no one has ever tried to be one. Regularly preyed upon by bullies, he orders a costume off the Internet and decides to become a vigilante, calling himself Kick-Ass. His first task of taking down two criminals results in him being left in hospital. To his dismay, a rumour is also spread around the school that he is gay which catches gets the attention of his dream girl Katie (Lyndsy Fonseca). Declining to give up on Kick-Ass, Dave makes a comeback and saves a thugs life during a fight. As the status of Kick-Ass increases, he finds fame and popularity on the Internet through social networking sites. Meanwhile, crime boss and coke dealer Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong) is tormented by a father and daughter pair of superheroes called Big Daddy (Nicholas Cage) and Hit-Girl (Chloe Moretz) who have their motives for battling crime together. Frank is also regularly pestered by his son Chris (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), who is willing to do anything to be part of the family business.

Although this ultra-violent adaptation of the graphic Marvel comic book Kick-Ass might seem like a parody of superhero films, there is not enough effort to transcend a number of the clichés that the script has been written around. Dave regularly reminds the audience that he is just an ordinary geek, but the plot still owes all too much to the first Spider-man film. The initial donning of the daggy costume, the chance to win the girl of his dreams, the inexperience of early battles and the dilemma between personal relationships and duty, are just some of the familiar grounds that Kick-Ass insists on covering once again. The film is at its funniest when it directly references and parodies other films, like cutting to Dave as he stands at a grave, vowing his revenge during a thunderstorm. However, Kick-Ass desperately lacks the sincerity of Sam Raimi's superhero films, which skilfully balanced the most fantastical elements with moments of humanity. Peter Parker might have been a geek but he was not a caricature. The reality of his problems, like his job and his relationships, made him a believable and interesting person outside of Spider-man. Dave has been written like a stereotype and the obligatory traits, like being girl shy and the masturbation jokes, are in check. There are certainly some laughs from the protagonist, but a lot the humour in the film is lowbrow and cringeworthy at times, asserting the films highly exaggerated and goofy tone.

M & M_Club Rating : 4.0/5