BEFORE: The goal was to tie this in with New York Comic-Con, and I missed it by about two weeks. The linking just wasn't there - but October here in NYC is just one big long costume party when you add the NYCC in with Halloween, so there you go. Linking from "The Dictator", Sasha Baron Cohen made a prominent cameo in "Anchorman 2", and so did Jim Carrey (last seen in "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone").
FOLLOW-UP TO: "Kick-Ass" (Movie #1,488)
AFTER: The set-up with the "Kick-Ass" films is unique - it's a way to tie in with the superhero genre without the characters having weird powers like the X-Men, or godlike strength or super-soldier serums like the Avengers. We're supposed to believe in a world, much like ours, where superheroes are a form of entertainment, and only a select few people are willing to fight crime, due to the very real danger involved.
This means that "real" injuries are possible, with no Wolverine-like healing, and it means that characters die and they DON'T come back (like Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, and most likely Wolverine in about 6 months). These are regular people, and unless they're expert fighters or are incredible lucky, they get hurt.
The story picks up months after Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl have left the superhero scene, although Hit Girl can't resist skipping school to take on drug-dealers all day long - it's the way her father trained her. Kick-Ass finds his life without crimefighting to be incredibly boring, so he longs to get back on the scene. But after he gets Hit Girl to train him, she's caught by her guardian and forced to attend school like a regular girl. (It doesn't go so well...)
This is where the film sort of goes off track - Hit Girl KNEW who she was in the first film, forcing her to become someone else just to figure out that she knew herself very well in the first place feels like a misstep, plus we lose her for the fighting scenes for the majority of the picture. One of the BEST things about the original "Kick-Ass" was watching a little girl swear like a trucker while severing the limbs of criminals. Well, I think it was one of the best things, it was certainly one of the most original, surprising and also disturbing things. It's kind of sad to see that replaced with a bunch of dick jokes and vomit-based humor.
Without her, Kick-Ass finds a new group of costumed people whom he also might have inspired, and joins their club. I admit I've never read the "Kick-Ass" comic, so I don't know how closely this film sticks to the comic plot, and maybe that's a good thing. Given the names of the new superheroes - Battle Guy, Dr. Gravity, Insect Man - I can't tell if these are supposed to be parodies of the genre, or if all of the good names were already taken by DC and Marvel heroes. There's even a married couple who use the code names "Tommy's Mum" and "Tommy's Dad" - the reason for using these names is a justified tear-jerker, but honestly as superhero names, they really kind of suck.
The villain, Red Mist, is back from the first film, with a new name that's not fit for print - I wonder how the film reviewers handled that when this was released last year. Did they just say "The M.F."? But this is another case of diminishing returns - his character got quite emasculated here, both figuratively and literally. I'm sure they can bring him back again if there's a "Kick-Ass 3", but what would be the point? As an ongoing series, these films really need to start deciding if they're going to function as a parody of superhero films, or the ultimate extension of them, and I don't think they can be both.
Also starring Aaron-Taylor Johnson (last seen making a cameo in "Captain America: The Winter Soldier"), Chloe Grace Moretz (last seen in "Hugo"), Christopher Mintz-Plasse (last seen in "Fright Night"), John Leguizamo (last heard in "Ice Age: Continental Drift"), Clark Duke (last seen in "Identity Thief"), Morris Chestnut (ditto), Donald Faison (last seen in "Clueless"), Claudia Lee, Garrett M. Brown, Lindy Booth, Robert Emms, Andy Nyman, Olga Kurkolina, with a cameo from Chuck Liddell.
RATING: 6 out of 10 pull-ups
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