Release Date: August 16, 2013
Director: Jeff Wadlow
MPAA Rating: R
Film Pulse Score: 1.5/10
Director and co-writer Matthew Vaughn’s Kick-Ass was generally well-received when it was released in 2010, but it was not without its detractors. Most notable among the latter was Roger Ebert who awarded the film a single star. I enjoyed the original film and yet I found much to chew on after reading Ebert’s critique. The fact that I almost always agreed with his sage words just emboldened my appreciation of Vaughn’s work. Kick-Ass was a unique film, not so much in its subject matter – the relatively nerdy high-schooler who dawns a masked outfit and becomes a superhero – but in its tone, incredible effects and stunt work, and imaginative cinematography. Throughout most of the film, Vaughn and his cast found just the right presentation of humor, violence, heart, and genre themes to seal the deal for many of us and make us believers in the film’s overall worth. Vaughn had a certain deftness that made the violence non-reprehensible (or at least justifiable); the characters were incredibly quirky and so their odd behavior was virtually understandable and forgivable (including the relationship between Big Daddy (Nicholas Cage) and his daughter Hit-Girl (Chloë Grace Moretz) and their actions; and the tight friendship that existed between Dave and his two best friends, Dave and his girlfriend, and Dave’s ever-important friendship with Big Daddy and Hit-Girl. In Chris D’Amico’s Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), Vaughn also had a ridiculously complex character with daddy issues who created several memorable moments, both frightening and hilarious. Hell, even Chris’ dad – wonderfully played by Mark Strong – contributed some terrific scenes.
Sadly, in the hands of writer and director Jeff Wadlow, Kick-Ass 2 is an unmitigated mess; dare I say it, it is a disaster and further proof that sequels are generally not a good idea unless the filmmaker has an extremely sound basis for bringing back existing characters, and/or adding new ones, and has a strong storyline to carry a second incarnation. In its latest manifestation, the story of Dave Lizewski as Kick-Ass is drowning in a sea of ridiculous tangents, unnecessary additional characters, nonsensical violence, gross-out “humor,” and forced emotional moments. I came quite close to walking out and probably would have if not for the fact that I had been asked to review the film.
Kick-Ass 2 picks up a couple of years later. During that time, Dave’s actions have led numerous other concerned citizens to create superhero alter-egos for themselves (and they are among the most ludicrous heroes you will ever encounter, even though their hearts are in the right place). Dave wants to get back into the lifestyle, but he does not want to go it alone – he wants Mindy, a.k.a., Hit-Girl to join him. After all, they made a good team. For a while, they come together and she trains Dave and the two take on some bad guys together. However, she will – at least temporarily – hang up her numb chucks and high-powered guns to try to lead a “normal” life with her guardian Detective Marcus Williams (Morris Chestnut). Feeling abandoned, Dave finds a group of superheroes led by Colonel Stars and Stripes (Jim Carrey) and joins their ragtag organization so that he can have both a sense of belonging and work on his mission to make the world a better place (a phrase that is used one-time too many throughout the film).
Wadlow’s script is rudderless and his cast seems unbelievably lost. Unlike the first film, I found I did not care about (a) any of the new characters) and (b) had lost interest in the existing characters. Wadlow does not seem to know what story he is telling. Is it about the band of superheroes coming together to support one another? Is it about justice and how to achieve it though non-violent means if possible? Is it about strength-through-unity and camaraderie in the face of relentless injustice that has permeated the vigilantes’ lives? Just when you think it is one or all of these, Wadlow takes us into Mindy’s freshman high school days and suddenly the film becomes Hit-Girl meets the cast of Carrie, Heathers, Mean Girls, and many more with a cast centered on a “clique-bitch.” The entire segment with Mindy attempting to fit in with the popular girls is undeniably absurd. There is one moment when the girls show her a boy-band video and we see what can only be described as Mindy’s first flush of sexual awakening. It was an embarrassing scene to say the least. The Mindy we know from Kick-Ass never would have done the things she does to become “one of the girls.” This chunk of the movie serves no real purpose and needed to be left on the cutting-room floor – if for no other reason than when she gets revenge on the popular “queens of mean,” she does so by using a sonic weapon that causes them to projective vomit and defecate in streams of excrement. Was this scene necessary? warranted? advisable? Anyone have a clue?
Chris has not been the Red Mist since his father was exploded by a bazooka in the first film (his mother dying in a gruesome tanning-bed accident in the sequel does not help his state of mind); so, he becomes the arch-villain The Motherfucker. He is hell-bent on killing Kick-Ass, his cohort of superhero vigilantes, and the rest of New York City. With loads of disposable income at his command, he hires incredibly dangerous sidekicks, not the least of who is “Mother Russia” (Olga Kurkulina), a frightening Amazonian-built killing machine who delivers one of the film’s unnecessary bloodbaths when she dispatches one pair of police officers after another. While I am nearly desensitized to violence in film and television, even I had a hard time with this particular segment’s execution.
Of course, the film goes precisely where one would expect it to go. Unlike the original, Kick-Ass 2 has little if any surprises. Hit-Girl rejoins Kick-Ass, he puts out a call for superheroes on the Internet, and they all descend on Motherfucker’s own version of a “Fortress of Doom.” The inevitable battle ensues, and it is no spoiler to say that the good guys win the day. Perhaps most disturbingly, the film ends with the oft-to familiar scene strongly hinting at a Kick-Ass 3. My only hope is that Kick-Ass 2 will do so poorly at the box office that another film will not be green-lit, or that the talented Aaron Taylor-Johnson (and perhaps Chloë Grace Moretz) will not be able to find the time to participate in a third film because he will be doing better films showcasing his legitimate acting abilities in worthy projects. Rarely have I been so disappointed in a film after having the first of a series really grow on me and, in my opinion, rise above its detractors to stand as a creative, action-packed, funny, charming, and uplifting film. Kick-Ass 2 cannot be described by any of these latter adjectives. It is – at least in this reviewer’s estimation – one of the worst films of 2013 and there was no reason it should have failed so miserably given the indomitable foundation upon which it could have rested – i.e., Kick-Ass, a one-of-a-kind original gem.
