Kick-Ass

Superhero movies have become so ubiquitous that "deconstructions" of them are now a genre of their own. Perhaps we can blame The Dark Knight, but now even the most ridiculous superheros have to be grounded in faux-reality. Last month I saw Watchmen (2009), a pompous piece of dross laughable in its self-importance. How seriously can you take a movie with a giant blue nudist and Pusher from The X-Files playing Richard Nixon?

I wasn't expecting much from Kick-Ass (2010), but this adaptation of Mark Millar-John Romita's cult comic book is actually excellent. Some elements don't work, but it's definitely the most entertaining and clever superhero film of the past decade.

Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) is a New York City nerd who dreams of being a superhero. After getting mugged once too often, Dave sports a scuba suit and billy clubs, and becomes Kick-Ass. His efforts are initially ineffectual but make him a local hero, cleaning up petty crime and flirting with popular girl Katie (Lyndsy Fonseca). He also discovers a father-daughter pair of real superheros, Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) and Hit Girl (Chloe Moretz), who fight crime with a bottomless arsenal of guns, knives and high-tech weaponry. Unfortunately, Kick-Ass runs afoul of crime boss Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong), whose son (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) poses as superhero Red Mist to trick Kick-Ass into revealing his identity.

Kick-Ass admirably grounds its heroics in a real-world setting, allowing the film to be both believable and funny. Dave is one of the more realistic movie teens and his bumbling efforts at crime-fighting only make him more endearing. The film is often hysterical, especially when Kick-Ass "romantically" sneaks into his girlfriend's bedroom (take that, Edward Cullen!), and does fun things with genre cliches and conventions. On one level, it's certainly a nerd fantasy, with Dave gaining confidence and bedding a popular girl, but he also gets the shit kicked out of him repeatedly and needs the "real" heroes to save him. Certainly his makes a better "origin story" than a superpower-enhanced goon.

Unfortunately, Big Daddy and Hit Girl don't quite mesh with everything else. Several critics, most famously Roger Ebert, raised "moral" objections to an eleven year-old girl killing people and cussing like R. Lee Ermey, but she's really the logical extension of the smartass kid found in every contemporary movie. Mostly I found them less interesting than Kick-Ass himself. They provide commentary on the nasty ramifications of superhero-dom and inurring children to violence but jar with the otherwise grounded tone. When Hit-Girl starts gunning down dozens of bad guys John Woo-style, I lose interest. And don't get me started on the jetpack...

Writer-director Vaughn does a good job with this material. The film sparkles with well-written dialogue and funny characterizations, yet the film seems outlandish only in parts. The film is directorally competent, with some creative sequences (a comic book backstory for Big Daddy and Hit Girl) and a few that don't quite work (the shootout in the dark). Bits of the film play like low-rent Tarantino, especially the iPod shuffling music during the finale, but for the most part it retains a charming and clever tone.

Aaron Johnson is effective both as a likeable nerd and budding vigilante, infusing his character with palpable outrage and self-effacing humor. This blogger generally hates Nicolas Cage, but finds him more palatable than usual here. Chloe Moretz is a charming screen presence, and with roles in (500) Days of Summer and Let Me In she's on her way to stardom. Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Superbad) does well with an underwritten part. Mark Strong (Sherlock Holmes) adds a chatty New York gangster to his rogue's gallery resume. Elizabeth McGovern (Once Upon a Time in America) has an odd cameo.

Kick-Ass has some rough patches, but for now I'd definitely name it as my favorite superhero film. If you're going to "deconstruct" the superhero genre, for God's sake do it with cleverness and wit. Don't go meditate on Mars.