By ALEX PECHA
Contributing Writer
You either loved or hated Kickass. Its over the top violence and oddly placed introspection into the idea of superheroes, was either seen as a great movie self-aware about itself, or an annoying superhero flick with violence that might make Tarantino cringe. I fell into the first category with an almost childish glee. Sure the first movie was horribly violent with a love for seeing its protagonists suffer, but it was also smart and minus one oddly placed scene involving a mini-gun equipped jetpack tended to keep itself well grounded.
Kickass 2 is not that, now that doesn’t make ita bad movie, it just makes it not as good as the first one.
After the events of the first movie, Kickass (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) has retired from being Kickass to lead a normal high school life, though he changes his mind and asks Hit-Girl (Chloe Moretz) to train him in being an actual super hero and soon winds up joining a group of likeminded vigilantes named “Justice Forever”. Though Hit-Girl tries to give up her life of crime fighting and become a normal teenage girl so she can’t join in on the justice league for fun. Meanwhile Chris D’Amico, better known as Red Mist, wants to get revenge on Kickass for killing his father and starts putting together an “Evil army” to take him down. What follows is a romp of action scenes and blood,
The action scenes are fun enough, but they never quite reach some of the absolutely hair raising moments that the first movie’s action scenes gave. The last big climax scene is an exciting one; but only because it involves large numbers and a shark, and the other scenes are just sort of…there, none of them quite hit the webcam or hallway type highs of the first movie
The other parts of the movie lag behind as well. The characters aren’t as balanced as they were in the first, the titular Kickass is incapable of driving the movie forward himself. The very un-Jim Carey like Jim Carey isn’t in the movie long enough to really uplift it or bring it down, making him feel more like an elongated cameo than anything. The real driving force behind this movie is Chloe Moretz as the ever badass Hit-Girl, who gets her own story arc of “trying to be a normal teenage girl”. Though this arc isn’t exactly bad, it ends in what is essentially a huge poop joke (And I mean that literally), though Hit-Girls badassitude (Which Urban Dictionary promises me is a real word) more than makes up for her arc’s weak ending.
The other characters almost feel like filler. The awkward friends of Kickass are back and even have their own arc. This arc however is not all that interesting and ends in both a plot hole and a heartwarming moment that didn’t warm my heart at all. The girlfriend from the first film, Katie, gets a whole one passing scene that writes her out of the movie entirely; which felt contrived and really awkwardly written. Donald Faison shows up as a member of the group of super heroes that Kickass joins but never feels like anything more than “Turk from scrubs dressed up like a super hero”. The other members of the group “Justice Forever” are rather boring and didn’t leave much of an impact, and while the evil group that Chris puts together is a bit more fun, they get little-to-no characterization.
That’s also a huge problem with Kickass 2 when compared to its predecessor. The first movie gave screen time to everyone, even the minor mobsters, so you felt something when they died or were in danger (even if it was just a chuckle). That doesn’t happen here. The characters are fully disposable for plot sake and leave little emotional impact on you.
The biggest thing that stands out though, is the shift in tone and attitude from the first movie. In Kickass, the movie had the attitude of “sure, this kid is trying to be a super hero, now look at him get the metaphorical crap beat out of him.” It was a movie that realized that being a super hero was a ridiculous idea beyond being a symbol and that the only ones who could even partially pull it off are people with a lot of guns, combat training, and a compromised set of morals; and even they have a high probability of getting set on fire.
In Kickass 2 however everything is played nearly straight; sure the movie occasionally laughs at itself with some of the people who sign up to be a super hero or villain being totally inept at being either, but in the end it’s just a bunch of heroes (even if they’re not exactly skilled heroes) fighting a guy whose plan is to literally blow up the city. It just doesn’t feel as smart or at least as quirky as the original.
With how much I’ve been banging on about how Kickass 2 isn’t as good as the first you’d expect me to hate it right? Wrong. The movie is still fun to watch, even if it wasn’t as good as the first movie. The action scenes are still fun, the comedy still manages to elicit laughs, and the gore is still plentiful.
All in all Kickass 2 is a good movie, just not great. If you’re a fan of high violence action movies or superhero movies you’ll probably enjoy it. Though if you’re looking for the same level of intelligence and self-awareness as the first Kickass had a mire of “just not quite as good” feelings will leave you overall disappointed with the movie.
And no one can replace Nicolas Cage from the first movie, not even Jim Carey.
