So I was going to write a review of Kick-Ass 2. I was going to write this weeks ago, still weeks after it had been out in cinemas. However what with the move and my procrastination and that I never got round to it till now.
Now I find myself struggling to remember all the finer points. I guess this is why reviews are written so quickly. Well, there are many points I discussed with Cara after seeing the film that stick out like sore thumbs for me, sore because they are a blot of ink on the Kick-Ass franchise.
I say franchise, however I haven't read the comics. Something I hadn't really thought of doing, then I heard about some of the discrepancies between the comic and the latest film, now I really don't want to read the comic. More on that, later.
To be honest, really honest, because the way I'm about to write about the film for the rest of this post, I kind of don't want to admit this; when I first saw the film and the end credits started I felt like I'd finally seen a super movie sequel that got it right.
This is because there are so many super hero sequels that go through the exact same motions:
Superhero is superhero
Superhero has self doubt
Superhero loses/removes identity
Superhero's now normal life is threatened/has been hurt by enemy
Superhero regains identity and brings it
When thinking of Hit Girl, yes, she finds some of the parts of being a teenager and having a social life she had never indulged in before, alright Union J, you can leave the screen now and go back to being background sound. Then she embraces this American High School dream, is date-ditched, then in her own time comes back to being Hit Girl. Wait, that is the formula.
Also, I wanted her to get back at the Queen B and her cronies with something more intelligent than making themselves void their bodies of pretty much everything. I know it just demonstrates the way Hit Girl does not give a shit. But Hit Girl knows how to be discreet. What the hell was that? It just made me feel sick.
Let's look at Kick-Ass himself now, yeah, he just got dumped by Katie and doesn't even seem to care. What is this? Their relationship was so carefully worked on in the first film, well I thought so anyway. The sequel was just making me nostalgic for the 2010 release, where it was charming, a bit off the wall and seemingly kept things quite real. In this film Red Mist - now under the alias of 'Mother F*cker' kills his own mother** in their first scene together, albeit by accident, but still, it's done and they move on.
And this is where I turn into a hypocrite.
Because I complain at the lack of emotion when it comes to Kick-Ass and Chris D'Amico in terms of losing his girlfriend and mother. However, elsewhere, the film is plastered with emotional pep talks between Hit Girl and Kick Ass, that bloody theme, the one when they get soppy, it's probably played the most in the film. It was once inspiring. And it completely takes away from the scenes where generally horrific things do happen. When Kick-Ass loses his father. He's lost his whole family. This is skirted over I feel so quickly, and due to all the emotional baggage elsewhere, in the will-they-won't-they-be-superheros-again, it's almost lost, apart form the fact his Dad is the sweetest character, which helps it to carry weight. I just feel the film makers really need to look at the set up from the first film, what would be upsetting to the characters. Hell yes Kick-Ass cared for Katie and completely undoubtedly Kick-Ass loves his father. These are the driving emotional forces, forget about a few of the pep talks. Why would Hit Girl even bother with all that talking?
Quickly now: lots of the fights scenes were great fun to watch and I really liked Jim Carrey's portrayal of Colonel Stars and Stripes.
There was also one gag that stood out for me due to it's utterly distasteful 'humour'. I should mention again, I haven't read the comics, so I am not looking at this from the perspective of what was kept in and what was written for the film. In the film itself, the scene where Mother-F*cker and one of his cronies get into Night Bitches' house and he attempts to rape her but, after a visual gag of him from behind attempting to 'ready' himself, can't quite pull it through. First of all, before even going into why this is offensive - we've already had that visual gag when Kick-Ass is trying to fix the zip on his costume. There is no need for the second time. Then, there is no need for this scene. It was awful, especially when trying to make it humorous. I read that they decided to alter it drastically from the comic to keep in tone with the movie, yet this use of humour is cheap, degrading and worrying, quite a few people laughed at it in the screen I was in. I feel it would be best if they had kept out that entire scene in her house - they didn't approach it in a way that reflects how awful it is, especially not when it's used for a gag.
I want to stop here. I could go on, rant more, list more things I didn't like about the film. I should probably summarise with this:
For me, Kick-Ass 1 is a great film, it explores a more plausible world for superheroes to grow in than other films, it has a grittiness to it, the pain, the loss's. However it also carries a charm that keeps you watching and warming to the various characters. It also successfully chooses when to be emotional, and those poignant moments really drive home the desperate situation the characters are in.
Kick-Ass 2 takes the success of the first film and just runs off in the wrong direction, with cheap homages to it's predecessor, such as Mindy making hot chocolates for her Dad; taking a melancholic shot from the first film and, in doing so, taking away from the sadness and dampening the character of Hit Girl (who would've considered that a waste of time I reckon). It also refuses to develop new characters. We all got excited when we saw Turk appeared as Dr. Gravity, however it would have been nice to learn more about him, see his character arc, instead of just some new metal spikes for his bat.
This is turning into another rant, let me summarise this much more quickly:
If you haven't already seen Kick-Ass 2 then don't. The first one's awesome though, watch that one.
In other hot off the press news, Hayden reviewed Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines:
"It's just a lot of women walking around naked while men keep singing 'blurred lines'."
More old new reviews coming, in a long time away.
CHEERIO
Thanks to:
http://collider.com/kick-ass-2-sequel-posters/
http://swishost.com/
** Was that his mother? Or was it one of Friends' cast off Janets with a severe alcohol problem and amazing ability to explain to her son their current situation so clearly that any passing stranger, like say, if Franklin was successfully creeping round their house, could catch up on the past three years of their lives. I don't know, maybe I should watch both again to compare his mother in the films, but right now in the first one in my memory she's like Charlotte from Sex and the City, then the second she's all of a sudden turned into Widow Twanky. Is true.
P.S I'm working a job now that is part time, and by part time I mean full time and by full time I mean all the time. But I'm still going to try and blog at least fortnightly, I will try my best, I promise, unlike Universal Pictures and Marv Studios. AND I'M DONE.
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