BEFORE: Last film with Nicolas Cage, and the last film before Comic-Con. I've got 24 hours before my plane takes off, and I could probably squeeze one more film in, but the linking is telling me to wait. I don't see an actor connection to the next film on my list, so I'm going to try and watch one or two films in San Diego and improve the connections at the same time. Besides, I should probably devote some time to proper packing, seeing as I just spent an hour searching the house for my iPad, which I only use at conventions to play films and take credit card orders. I usually keep it in a milkcrate by my desk with some graphic novels, but since it wasn't there, I was convinced for a while that I took that crate to my storage unit, and I'd need to make a trip there tomorrow morning. I finally found the iPad in another comic book box, so I'm not freaking out as much. (Yes, I should probably set up the iPad to do other things, like watch movies, but I haven't had the time. Too busy watching movies...)
THE PLOT: Dave Lizewski is an unnoticed high school student and comic book fan who one day decides to become a super-hero, even though he has no powers, training or meaningful reason to do so.
FOLLOW-UP TO: "Super" (Movie #1,094)
AFTER: I waited a good long time for this one, or at least it feels like it - it wasn't available anywhere when I did my last superhero chain, and I was starting to wonder what the hold-up was. Was it because the word "ass" is in the title? Finally it appeared on PPV in late 2012 and I picked it up for $1.99. I'm thinking that was a bargain.
I'm tempted to cry foul at the violence here, which is graphic and extensive - and some of it is directed at a little girl, for chrissakes. But she gives as good as she gets, and then some. What should I make of the image of a girl, age 12 (at time of filming) shooting guns, killing bad guys, even slicing off their limbs? And yet people seemed to have more of a problem with her saying the F-word and the C-word, but I digress. I realize it's all special effects, and the little girl didn't shoot or stab anyone, but still...is this inappropriate or entertaining? Can it be both?
The title character is one of those nebbishy teens, the everyman, who wonders why people don't put on costumes like comic-book heroes and go out and fight crime. Then, when he gets beat up, he realizes why people don't put on costumes and go out and fight crime. But he hooks up with a father/daughter team who are much more professional in their methods, and their mission to take down a drug kingpin.
There's more, of course, but I don't want to say too much. The stunts are impossible, the violence is over-the-top, and the plot has some nice turning points. This turned out to be either the most ridiculous superhero film, or the coolest thing I've seen in a while. Can it be both?
This represents the new age of superheroes, where they appear in YouTube videos and have web-sites and MySpace/Facebook profiles. Heroes for the generation raised on "Kill Bill" and "300". Kids who've had to witness terrorism, school shootings, and inner-city crime. Is this what we get as a result? A little girl who plays with knives, swords and guns?
It still comes off as disconcerting - like that Onion headline that read "Cute kitten thinks of nothing but murder all day". But I'm afraid to give the film a lower rating, because I don't want Hit Girl mad at me...
I think that with all the furor over school shootings, or kids having access to guns, this film walks a very fine line. Or maybe it erases it completely. With some people trying to link violent video-games to violence in the real world, it's a little weird to see a character shooting people in a "real" situation in a style very similar to a first-person shooter simulation. It's almost like the film is trying to provide the link that legislators are looking for, and I'm not sure that's the connection that the movie + videogame industry wants made.
There's an odd paradox with superhero movies, since there are no real superheroes, any movie or comic-book reality that portrays them with powers is automatically not ours. But when you open up a Marvel or DC comic, you might see people within that reality reading comic books. Why would they have comic book heroes in that world, when they have the "real" thing? And in a case like "Kick-Ass", if the real people get inspired by comic books to become heroes, isn't that putting the cart before the horse? I think they worked neatly around this, though, by portraying costumed heroes with no superhero powers. So it's a world without costumed heroes...until it isn't.
I think this is a good place to stop for a bit, and process what I've seen today. 5 days at Comic-Con, plus a 6th day to travel back, then I'll probably have to catch up on sleep, so if I don't catch a film in San Diego, I'll post again in about a week.
Also starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson (last seen in "Nowhere Boy"), Chloë Grace Moretz (last heard in "Bolt"), Christopher Mintz-Plasse (last heard in "Paranorman"), Mark Strong (last seen in "John Carter"), Michael Rispoli (last seen in "Summer of Sam"), Clark Duke (last seen in "Hot Tub Time Machine"), Lyndsy Fonseca (ditto), Yancy Butler, Xander Berkeley (last seen in "Billy Bathgate"), with cameos from Elizabeth McGovern, Craig Ferguson (last heard in "Winnie the Pooh").
RATING: 8 out of 10 x-rays
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