Escape to the Movies: Kick Ass 2

[RJ 17]

So in summation: Superman is still a little *****? Got it.

On a more serious note, I've got a rather strange situation dealing with the Kick-Ass franchise. I didn't see it in theatres and a friend of mine kept pestering and pestering rent and watch it once it was out on DVD. Just to troll him, I said it looked terrible and had to be a shitty movie even though I had no basis for this opinion and just really liked getting a rise out of my friend because, even though he knew I was just joking, he still go genuinely upset when I said the movie had to suck. I made a deal with him that if he actually watched Boondock Saints (a movie he hadn't watched yet despite having been out for years before Kick-Ass came out), I'd go ahead and watch Kick-Ass. He fulfilled his end of the bargain so I fulfilled mine and watched Kick-Ass. Here's where the strangeness of my situation comes in: I actually did like the movie, it took it as a fun parody of the comic book movies that seem to be all the rage these days. Yet I convinced myself that I didn't WANT to like it purely because of how I was messing with my friend about it the whole time (and continued to say it was terrible even after seeing it just to keep pissing him off).

So yeah, I've got mixed feelings about the franchise...but they're only mixed because I specifically went out of my way to mix them.

 

[The Great JT]

Kick-Ass 2 looks pretty good. And I'll say it, Mother Russia looks pretty hot.

 

[Daaaah Whoosh]

This review made me feel bad for liking the first Kick-Ass. That said, I think I'm going to go watch it again. And perhaps see the sequel in theatres, if I get a chance to after Elysium and before summer break ends.

 

[Phuctifyno]

I felt it tries to answer the question made in the first comic: "why nobody tries to be a super-hero in the real world?" And it answer well in a over the top pulp kind of way.

I think that's why the first movie didn't work for me. The premise of "superheroes in the real world" is undermined by the pulpy tone. It annoyed me that the first act of the first movie was dedicated to that epiphany as if it were some incredibly clever revelation that nobody had explored before. Then, once the ultra-violence starts, it's so over the top that the initial question loses all meaning. At no point in the movie do they actually step into the Real World. It was, like, not quite self-aware enough to pull off its self-awareness...

Sorry, Bob, not a fan.

I preferred Super... and Watchmen... and Batman Begins... and Mystery Men... and Unbreakable... and Taxi Driver... and

 

[skylog]

I'm still hesitant to see this, because the comic left me with such a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach that I don't think I can shake.

 

[ExtraDebit]

The most memorable part of kick ass one for me was when kickass was helping a dude being beated up by 2 dudes and kickass intervene but got his ass kicked instead, then one of the thug ask "what's wrong with you man, you gonna die for someone you don't even know?"

Of which kickass reply "what's wrong with me? 2 dudes ganging up on one guy while everyone just watches and you wanna know what's wrong with me?"

I don't know what but that brought a tear to my eyes, maybe it just brought out the idealistic youth I have inside of me which was nurture by disney movies but now buried deep inside by real life practicality.

 

[Tiamattt]

Wow a age restriction, that's new. Although couldn't Bob just said mother ****er, not the first time he censored out swear words, especially since the dude's name only popped up like what, 3 times at most? Pretty sure I heard the *BLEEP* sound more then that in a escapist video. And since there was nothing more violent then usual in the clips, it felt kinda unnecessary. Not complaining or anything, just saying really.

Here's looking for forward to KA2 though.

 

[Reynaert]

Looks decent enough, I might give this a try. I enjoyed the first one without it blowing me away. Also, I don't read American comics so I won't have to deal with any preconceived notions.

PS: Defendor was a refreshing entry in the genre, is anything like it, maybe a sequel even, coming out in the foreseeable future?

 

[Vortigar]

Really glad to hear that the movie does not follow the comic very well. Really didn't like the comic. To needlessly brutal and not fun in the slightest.

Absolutely agreed, that book was boring, not shocking and completely unfunny, a long shot from the first volume. I'll quote a better book and leave it at: "Mark Millar licks goats".

The premise of "superheroes in the real world" is undermined by the pulpy tone.

I don't think it's about superheroes in the real world at all. It makes a nod to it and then goes along its merry way. Much like The Boys (which is better in almost all respects btw) they draw the inherent absurdity of superheroes to such an extreme that it becomes its own universe again. By doing so it both celebrates and ridicules the superhero genre at the same time.

 

[Merklyn236]

I tried multiple times to watch the first one. I never, and I do mean EVER, got to the point of the main character putting on the costume for the first time. Dark comedy is a genre that I can usually appreciate, but the guy jumping off the roof "cause he though he could fly" only to smash horrifically into a car - followed by our main character's mother having a stroke (? I forget if it was that or an embolism [sp?]) and DYING at the breakfast table just made me want to turn it off.

Somehow I kept thinking, "Huh, a dark movie that thinks this kind of stuff is funny? Apparently, I don't get the joke in all this" and I would hit the stop button.

Buuuuuuut, maybe I'll see this one first and that will help....

 

[Metalrocks]

good. was intending to watch it anyway.

 

[Steve the Pocket]

I think the age gate was more for the explicit shots of bloody violence. I know Bob has reviewed movies that have bloody violence in them before... I mean, I can't think of any at the moment, but he must have at some point... but he's never edited them into his reviews, likely because he normally just uses looped footage from green-band trailers.

 

[spoonybard.hahs]

Oh hey look, another person on the internet taking a pop at Man of Steel for no good reason. That's what you became for a moment then Bob. Not a respected member of a field, another person on the internet.

Also, you've sold me on the DVD release of this. Thought it looked good, glad it is.

Hmmm... I would think that Man of Steel being an unadulterated piece of crap was a good enough reason to take pop shots at it. I know it certainly ranks high up on my, "Ways How to NOT Make a Film," list. But you're probably right. It's not the movie. It's us.

 

[Johnson McGee]

Dave to old to be in high school is really going to bug me unless I can come up with a decent excuse for it, I wish it wasn't mentioned. Otherwise a decent review.

I'm not familiar with the first movie, but it's possible over the three year period between Hit-girl going from 11 to 14 (entering grade 9) there's a few possibilities such as: Dave could have either gone from grade 9 to grade 12 or grade 10 to grade 13 (in an area where grade 13 is a thing), or he failed a grade from spending too much time hero-ing on the street, or he's on a 'victory lap' (taking extra courses after graduating) to up his grades for university.

 

[righthanded]

I believe this is the first review I've seen claiming that this movie is actually worse than the first. I didn't like Kick-Ass so I doubt I'll ever put forth any effort to watching the sequel. I never really bought into the "real life superhero" concept since the first movie made it seem like it was incredibly easy to become a superhero--with little or no consequences. Compared to something like the Venture Bros, where cartoon violence and fantasy intersect with realistic pathos and emotion, Kick-Ass just seemed psychopathic. Either the talent to make something subversive and interesting was absent or the goal was basically subject audiences to something so dumb and incoherent that they would have to agree that it wasn't a mistake, regardless of how utterly pointless and heartless the movie ended up feeling.

 

[Agayek]

Dave to old to be in high school is really going to bug me unless I can come up with a decent excuse for it, I wish it wasn't mentioned. Otherwise a decent review.

You could always handwave it by saying "oh, he was a freshman in the first movie". That way, he'd be a senior in this one.

 

[Sylocat]

I wish they'd made this sooner. It makes it less shocking that Hit-Girl is in her mid-teens.

However, having recently seen Equestria Girls, I am definitely looking forward to the parts where she tries to fit in with normal high school cliques.

 

[Mr.Pandah]

Oh look, Moviebob makes ANOTHER comment on Man of Steel. We get it.

 

[Callate]

Within the works of Millar that I've read, his fandom becomes hard to understand. It's pretty clear that the audience isn't co-conspirators in the scorn, but the target. It's like a kid hanging out with a gang for the sense of belonging and camaraderie despite the fact that they periodically beat the daylights out of him.