Kick-Ass | B-

Kick-Ass is a comic book movie based on the series of the same name by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. The original series took an interesting and realistic look at what the world would be like if regular people decided to dress up as superheroes and fight crime. The movie does the same at first, before moving further and further away from realism until it becomes flat-out unbelievable.

The protagonist, Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson, The Illusionist), is just an average New York teenager. He has a couple of close friends, a crush on the popular girl and an affinity for comic books. His life is unremarkable in every way, and he knows it. After being mugged while an onlooker does nothing, and inspired by years of idolizing superheroes, Dave decides to create a heroic alter ego. Calling himself Kick-Ass, he attempts to fight crime despite having no superpowers, Batarangs, or even rudimentary martial arts training. This leads him into several conflicts with a drug cartel operated by gangster Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong, Sherlock Holmes), and later the villain Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Superbad). Along the way Kick-Ass also meets the highly-disciplined heroes Hit-Girl (Chloë Moretz, (500) Days of Summer) and Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage, Ghost Rider) who have made it their lives' work to take down D'Amico and his gang.

As is the case with many adaptations, many of the script's flaws are due to diversions from the source material. While it's difficult to pinpoint specific problems without spoiling some of the twists, if the screenplay had followed the comic book more closely, Kick-Ass would have been a much better movie. On the other hand, Matthew Vaughn's (Layer Cake, Stardust) style of direction was a perfect fit for Kick-Ass, with some very interesting fights scenes and camera angles. The acting was at least decent all-around, with Cage's campiness and Moretz's amusing and sadistic persona particularly standing out. The over-the-top violence and language in the film, which has lead to some controversy because the Hit-Girl character is only 11 years old, was greatly exaggerated. While some may find it offensive, Kick-Ass is really no worse than many other modern movies in terms of graphic violence or profanity.

Overall, Kick-Ass could have been much better if it had stuck to the plot of the original series, but it isn't terrible. There are many scenes in which the flaws outweigh the strengths of this anti-superhero movie, but for the times when you're not rolling your eyes, Kick-Ass does provide some enjoyable mindless entertainment.