Kick Ass

Dir Matthew Vaughn

Written by Jane Goldman, Matthew Vaughn

Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Chloe Grace Mortez, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Nicolas Cage, Mark Strong, Lyndsy Fonseca, Clark Duke, Evan Peters, Omari Hardwick, Michael Rispoli, Dexter Fletcher, Jason Fleming, Xander Berkley.

Teenager Dave (Taylor-Johnson) feels alone in his life; his mother has passed away, he has one worded conversations with his dad, he is invisible to girls. He and his two best friends (Duke and Peters) love going to the local comic book store, and Dave, tired of the violence around his everyday life – wonders why no one has ever decided to be a superhero… so he decides to become ‘Kick Ass’ a crime fighter.

He soon finds out that there are other ‘superheros’ out there, namely Hit Girl (Mortez) and her dad ‘Big Daddy’ (Cage). When the three of them come under the radar of mob boss Frank D’Amico (Strong), Frank’s son Chris (Mintz-Plasse) decideds to become ‘Red Mist’ in order to lure Kick Ass out, to gain his Dad’s affections.

The entire cast do a good job and it is almost takes you by surprise with some of the adult themed moments that come from then 12 year old Mortez with her action and language. Taylor-Johnson (who was still just Johnson, as he had yet to marry), is fine as the aloof Dave. It’s hard to imagine that in 4 short years he would be the lead in Godzilla, and is almost unrecognisable under his curls and glasses. Cage is great in a supporting role as Big Daddy.

The screenplay is fine, but at almost 2hrs long – it does feel a little drawn out. It almost feels that there was more attention put towards the relationships between the antagonist father and son, rather than the protagonist. With a sequel released three years later, I wonder if this will be touched on in that (the review of Kick Ass 2 will be released in a few days).

There is a very fun soundtrack, that plays over some of the action sequences, and the score is quite fun too – especially in some of the later moments of the film.

3/5