So having shared my thoughts about the comic book serialisation/graphic novel of Kick-Ass recently, I went to see the movie with a few friends last night; and boy, was I impressed. In fact, we all five of us were thoroughly impressed.
The film was amazing. I laughed so much at the sheer gratuitous spectacle and gratuitous dialogue. I went in expecting ultra-violence and profanity, and got exactly that. However such ingredients are no guarantee of quality, yet this was a quality movie through and through in my view. Easily one of the best super-hero movies I have seen I feel, and I have seen a lot.
Recent years have seen a number of movies change the stakes when it comes to the super-hero genre, so much so that I think many movies are transcending the boundaries of the genre (the Dark Knight is a thriller at heart; Watchmen and V For Vendetta play on politics; etc). In other words maybe the super-hero movie is no longer a genre in of itself. Kick-Ass is one of those movies, upending the established super-hero movie tropes, and doing so with verve and commitment to the story and characters. It is an unflinching tour-de-force that could have been terrible exploitative rubbish, instead I was carried along in a story I was already familiar with. Great stuff.
And as for the star of the film - Hit Girl. Easily. The coolest 10-year-old girl in comics or cinema for my money, no contest. Setting aside the ethics or morality of such a character creation (there is a clear argument to say that she effectively suffered abuse given her dedicated upbringing), the actress playing Mindy/Hit Girl was simply brilliant and perfectly cast. To bring in any moral or ethical judgement on the character is to surely miss the point, however. As Mindy/Hit Girl, Chloë Moretz stole every scene she was in except possibly those with Nicholas Cage who was just madly-brilliant. Every member of the cast was great; I can't fault the choices.
As for the deviations from the source material, well that is inevitable when translating 8 evenly paced (page wise) episodes into a 3 act model. I wish I had blogged that before listening to Mark Millar this afternoon, as he said the same thing, but it is true nonetheless.
A great, great film in my view. This deserves to be critically considered outside of the controversy that understandably accompanies it.
I saw this film a few week ago and thought it was fantastic.
ReplyDeleteUsually I'm not the biggest fan of Nicholas Cage, but he is brilliant in this film. I especially liked his impression of Adam West when he's Big Daddy which I thought was a nice touch.
I am pretty much the same on Nicholas Cage, and agree whole-heartedly about his portrayal of Damon McCready/Big Daddy.
ReplyDeleteListening to interviews with Matthew Vaughn and Mark Millar, what is really cool is that the Adam west speech pattern and the moustache extension 'disguise' (brillaint touch, I thought) were his own ideas.