Chris Tilly from IGN UK gives his 5/5 star review of Kick-Ass.
"UK, March 12, 2010 - Crafting a successful superhero movie is easier said than done. The best of the genre -- and Christopher Nolan's Batman movies immediately spring to mind -- take what in some quarters could be considered ridiculous and turn it into the sublime. Respecting audience and source material in equal measure, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight entertained, provoked thought, garnered critical acclaim, and pulled in a fortune at the box office. One false move can result in just the plain ridiculous, however, and from Condorman to Catwoman, movie history is littered with such expensive miss-fires.
Kick-Ass is something new, however -- a superhero movie unlike any that has gone before. A spectacular flight of fancy that takes genre conventions and turns them on their head. One that pays tribute to the rich history of the comic book movie, and yet in the process manages to create something wholly fresh and original. And quite possibly the benchmark against which future such efforts will be measured.
Hatched in the twisted mind of Wanted creator Mark Millar, the story is a simple one. Dave Lizewski is an average high school student with typical teenage problems -- no girlfriend, too much homework, and a chronic masturbation habit. His love of comics has inspired him to want more, however; to do something remarkable with his unremarkable life. And so one day Dave decides to become a superhero.
Modifying a green wetsuit he buys online, Lizewski is soon transformed into Kick-Ass -- a masked vigilante prepared to fight the forces of evil to help those in need. Unfortunately, Dave is slim and slight and lacks anything resembling a superpower, so his first day on the job involves a brutal beating, a life-threatening stab wound, and a lengthy spell in the hospital.
Battered and bruised but unperturbed, Kick-Ass is soon back on the streets, with a steely determination that matches the metal that now fastens his arms and legs. This being the 21st century, he does what any self-respecting modern-day superhero would do and sets up his own MySpace page. In no time at all he's inundated with requests for help from a curious public, and when his first successful rescue attempt finds its way onto YouTube, Kick-Ass quickly turns into an online phenomenon.
His new-found celebrity status soon attracts the attention of Big Daddy and Hit-Girl, two similarly masked -- and notably more proficient -- vigilantes who take it upon themselves to help Dave in his efforts, and together they endeavour to clean up the streets.
The trio's success in tackling street crime also attracts the far-less-desirable attention of mob boss Frank D'Amico, however, a man who has built a criminal empire from the ground-up and is none-too-pleased to see it being dismantled by a bunch of kids in costumes. Frank is not the kind of man to take such disruption to his business lying down, and he soon formulates a plan that puts the three heroes on a collision course with this most cold and calculating of villains.
That's the story in a nutshell, and beyond the simple conceit of setting the story in the real world where superheroes are just normal people, Kick-Ass hardly re-invents the wheel. The way in which it is presented is what sets the film apart.
The dialogue is the first thing that jumps off the screen. Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman's adaptation of Millar and John Romita Jr.'s comic crackles with intelligence and wit. When Dave is hanging out with his two best friends, the one-liners come thick and fast and yet they feel utterly natural; the kind of Superbad-style banter you'd hear between any group of teenage friends.
Humorous nods to Superman, Spider-Man, Batman and the like are also expertly thrown into the mix, gently satirising the genre while at the same time paying tribute to what has gone before in the comic cannon.
Combine that with some hilarious interplay between D'Amico and his gang of hoods, and you've got some of the most smart, sophisticated and downright hilarious dialogue yet written for a superhero flick.
Cracking conversation is pointless if delivered by a cast of no-hopers, however, and mercifully Kick-Ass features note-perfect performances throughout, both from the seasoned pros and the many fresh faces on display.
Aaron Johnson probably has the toughest job playing Dave/Kick-Ass, a character that could easily seem smug or self-satisfied if even slightly miss-handled. Johnson plays him with just the right amount of pathos, vulnerability and affable good humour that it's impossible not to empathise, and by the time he's genuinely kicking ass in the film's finale, this skinny, mop-topped teen has turned into a genuinely convincing superhero.
Mark Strong also excels as the villain of the piece. Strong has masterfully played the bad guy in everything from Sunshine to Sherlock Holmes in recent years so it's hardly a stretch. But he plays D'Amico with a twinkle in his eye that suggests he's enjoying himself as much as we are.
Christopher Mintz-Plasse also deserves credit for his work as Red Mist, son of Frank D'Amico and sometime crime-fighting partner of Kick-Ass. An actor still struggling to escape from the shadow of McLovin', his character goes on an unexpected journey over the course of the film, and Mintz-Plasse does a good job conveying the frustration and confusion of this troubled teen.
However, the real stars of the show are Big Daddy and Hit-Girl. The former is a cop-turned-vigilante played to perfection by Nicolas Cage. An actor who has never knowingly delivered an understated performance, Cage's recent output has been patchy at best, but here he revels in the role of a man driven to the edge but D'Amico and his crew, deftly combining sadness and madness to cut a somewhat tragic figure.
Hope comes in the shape of his daughter Hit-Girl, however, and in a truly star-making turn, Chloe Moretz dominates the screen as the pint-sized assassin. Her blood-drenched entrance will go down as one of the great character intro's, and as Hit-Girl slices, dices and curses her way through some pretty dark material, she maintains her youthful exuberance, enthusiasm and even a perverse form of innocence.
Hit-Girl is truly the most outlandish of the Kick-Ass characters, but as played by Moretz, she is probably the most believable -- a testament to the talents of this promising young star.
She also handles the action as expertly as she does the drama, and Kick-Ass features the former in spades. Mind-blowing sequences chock full of high-octane stunts are liberally peppered throughout the film, each one topping what has gone before so that the proceedings build to a genuinely jaw-dropping climax.
It's not action for action's sake either -- there's a point to the violence in Kick-Ass, and it does have very real consequences, no more so than in a grandstanding rescue attempt shot in super slow-motion that thrills on one level but also packs a powerful emotional punch on another.
And this is where Vaughn and the rest of his team truly excel. Sure, Kick-Ass is a rip-roaring action flick full of accomplished performances and smart one-liners, but unless you truly care about the characters, it's just another disposable superhero flick.
But you do care. Such time, effort and thought has clearly gone into the creation of Kick-Ass, Red Mist, Big Daddy and Hit-Girl that it's all-but-impossible not to root for them. The costumes may be laughable and the situations far-fetched, but it is shot and played with a conviction that truly grounds the picture in reality.
For that very reason, Kick-Ass is as good a superhero movie as has yet been made -- storytelling of the very highest order, crafted by experts who know, love and treat the subject matter with the respect it deserves.
The result is utterly compelling from start-to-finish; an adaptation that perfectly captures the anarchic nature of the comic while at the same time eliciting unexpected emotions from a film about a crime-fighting kid in a wet-suit.
You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll squeal in delight at the outrageous behaviour of a little girl in a purple cape. But most of all, you'll wish that all superhero movies were like this."