Kick Ass: Thoughts and Reflections

Comics Movie Reviews
Kick Ass: Thoughts and Reflections
By Zak Edwards
April 20, 2010 - 22:45

Starring: Aaron Johnson, Chloë Grace Moretz, Nicholas Cage, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse
Directed by: Matthew Vaughn
Produced by: Matthew Vaughn, Brad Pitt, et al
Running Time: 117 min.
Release Date: 26 Mar, 2010 (UK), 16 April, 2010 (N. America)
Rating: R

While lacking some of the finer points of the comic book series from which the film is based, Matthew Vaughn’s Kick-Ass is an enormously entertaining film doing (almost) everything I hoped it would. I don't want to add to the critical evaluations of the film at this point, the Bin already has two great reviews you can link to at the end of this one. While the film, from a plot perspective, starts out strong and seems to desensitize the audience as it goes along, the technical aspects of the film, the colouring, shots and angles, and mise-en-scene all contribute to the purpose of the film: a simultaneous complete mockery and homage to the superhero, mostly through an appropriate mockery of superhero film. I would like to talk about these for a bit before I start discussing the film in relation to the book, not to quibble loyalty to plot points, but to discuss the impact some of the changes make to the mission of the film.

While this is from a higher angle, this screenshot still shows Vaughn's use of dramatic shots.

The film does great things with the colouring of the film, using bright colours in opposition with the gritty reality of the character’s lives and surroundings. The marketing campaign really used this to its full effect, making posters look like stereotypical superhero posters as a means of drawing people in. Of course, the title itself is an immediate marker of the satirical nature of the film, making the posters quite hilarious. In the film, the colouring aids in the satire quite obviously, but is never overbearing. On the contrary, the colouring is quite stylish, something Vaughn is known for. Similarly, the techniques Vaughn used with the camera were quite entertaining as well. Some of the best laughs I got out of the film were the shots and angles used. Vaughn unashamedly uses many of the angles and techniques directors of superhero films use to add drama and awe to the central characters. Vaughn repeatedly zooms towards characters at low angles in a similar mode of superhero films, which are meant to dramatically show the look of determination in the hero’s eyes while also showing how powerful he is by looking up at him. Dramatic zooming out shots are done as well in a continuation of using the very techniques as a means of satirizing the genre. Vaughn attacks at every point he can for some very funny and very poignant results.

Big Daddy and Hit-Girl as they appear in the comic series

I would like to talk about some of the changes to the book here, so here is a two-part warning: Spoiler Alert and this is not a space where I (hopefully) quibble about changes in an unproductive way, but discuss how these changes affect the themes of the movie. The character of Big Daddy, as I discussed earlier in my article Kick-Ass: A Retrospective and Anticipation, has experienced a makeover in the costume and character history departments. The costume change brings his look closer to Batman than his comic counterpart and visually aids in the correlation between this character and the Dark Knight. The same decision was made in the filming of Watchmen in order to accomplish a similar goal: making more obvious who is being targeted for the commentary. However, the new origin of the character, removes his accountant with a comic book collection story. Instead, Big Daddy is now more in line with a vengeful cop, one who was wrongly convicted and is now out for some payback. The thematic difficulty of this is twofold: it lessons the impact he has on his daughter and weakens his connection to the Kick-Ass himself. On a side note; one of the reasons for the Kick Ass comic book’s erratic release schedule was artist John Romita Jr.’s involvement with the animation of the origin story of Big Daddy and Hit-Girl, which is wonderfully done in a 3-D comic book style which looks and feels perfect for the film. Anyways, the origin maintains the death of Hit-Girl’s mother as well as giving Big Daddy a more respectable origin. In the original comic series, Big Daddy turns out to be an average person funding a fan dream through the selling of his priceless comic collection. Now, Big Daddy retains some form of perverted honour through his police story which, with the death of Hit-Girl’s mother still in tact, doesn’t commit as grave a crime against his daughter. The film does compensate for this in the final scenes after the hallway, where Hit-Girl (Matrix-style) takes out an entire room of armed gangsters, by repeatedly showing her get punched and kicked by the main villain. The film is all fun and games when Hit-Girl is winning, but once a full grown man starts hitting her in the face and making her bleed, the audience quiets down. The abuse she has suffered is shown through the villain more than through her father, which is unfortunate. When, at the end of the comic, Hit-Girl goes back to her mother, the scene is sickening considering the lies Big Daddy told to keep his daughter in his fanboy fantasy.

But the change also has to do with Kick Ass himself. Because Big Daddy is essentially a grown up version of Kick Ass, the film ignores in part the ambiguous attitude towards the violence these characters are creating, and not just physical violence against ‘bad guys,’ but the violence caused towards other people in different forms. Big Daddy, unafraid to murder gangsters or even use his own daughter, is not the slightly screwed up hero seen in the film, he is equally as psychopathic as the men he is fighting. The film draws comparisons more between Big Daddy and the main villain than with Kick Ass, which removes this ambiguity to an extent.

A good example of colour use in the marketing campaign of the film.

The other point I wanted to discuss was the relationship between Dave and Katie, while initially the same in the film, quickly becomes a stereotypical Hollywood scenario. The film, through a couple of points of their relationship, misses much of the tropes Millar was targeting. In the book, the rumour surrounding Dave is that he isn’t gay, but a gay prostitute who is getting abused by his clientele. This is the primary reason for his relationship with Katie, who sees the injuries he sustains as Kick-Ass as abuse because of his prostitution. What this does in the book is highlight how heroes almost never sustain injuries despite the gross amount of violence they sustain in their adventuring, taking the excuses to an absolute extreme. When Dave confesses to his lying to Katie, she doesn’t invite him to a sleepover, she goes straight to the nearest guy and sends Dave a picture of her giving the other guy a blowjob. This is done to resist the love interest trope, but to also highlight how the relationships he forms still have consequences, and people are not inherently good, but capable of mean-spirited things, even to people who were receiving their charity.

While this second part of this article is complaining about some things of the film, I still have to say the film was largely loyal and wonderfully executed. I look forward to seeing it again. Hit-Girl was certainly a show stealer, but overall the film was absolutely great and will be hard to top with the coming films. I eagerly await the opinion of future superhero films now that we are living in a world post-Kick-Ass!