What was so bad about Kick Ass 2? Seriously.

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bartholen_v1legacy

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Jan 24, 2009
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I saw a couple of days ago to my surprise that Kick Ass 2 holds only a 29% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I usually don't follow that site at all, but when I looked at what various critics had said, combined with James King calling it "very very disappointing" and Mark Kermode going so far as putting it on his worst of the year list, I started to think about it more.

And I honestly can't figure out what was so wrong about it. Sure, it wasn't Shakespeare, but it felt like a smooth and proper follow-up and definitely had that special Kick-Ass feel to it. It didn't disappoint me at all and didn't feel like a rehash. In fact, I'm inclined to say it was even better than the first. You may not agree with me, but what was so bad about it that it deserved such a beating from critics?
 

Dampfish

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Jun 9, 2010
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I love the first movie to death, ever since the first time I saw it. It kinda came like a thunderbolt from a clear sky for me.
It's admittedly been a while now since I saw either of them, but I remember that I didn't much care for the second one. It lacked the same 'punch' as the first and it kinda felt... like a diluted version of the first one. I dunno how else to describe it.
I loved the build-up before he became Kick-Ass almost more than I liked watching him be him (except during the finale), and I think that has something to with it. At least for me.
But the biggest issue must be that it's missing Big Daddy. Yes, he had a poignant last scene in the first movie, which certainly helped elevate the movie. But he left a Nic Cage-shaped whole after him and those are notoriously hard to fill.
Secondly, The ************ is not an interesting villain. He's... too childish I suppose? He feels like a wasted opportunity.
At the end of the first one, I couldn't wait to see what he would become, and all the things I imagined more or less happened in the second (with modification). But now that I've seen it, I realized that wasn't what I wanted after all...
 

Private Custard

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To add to the above, we also had to sit through some high-school 'mean girls' bullshit.

I just wanted Hit Girl to be kicking ass.....not getting dolled up and date-dumped. The whole thing felt so anticlimactic.
 

Wasted

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Dec 19, 2013
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I liked Kick-Ass 2, but like many it had many flaws that made it inferior to the first movie.
The high school mean girl thing was out-of-place at its best and incredibly inconsistent at its worst. So Hit Girl who did not care less for these people?s opinion of her throughout the movie, suddenly cared what they thought about her at the moment they ?betrayed? her.

There is a lack of a strong antagonist. The MF is too goofy of a villain to take seriously compared to his father from the first film, even with some of his darker moments. His uncle was more menacing and scary in his 1 minute film time than The MFs all dark scenes combined. In all fairness, Mother Russia was awesome.

There was no consequence at all to the friend to gave up KAs father to The MF on a silver platter?

In general, the movie moved too fast. Certain scenes needed more development. It felt too short.
 

fozzy360

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Oct 20, 2009
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The first Kick-Ass started off as a interesting deconstruction, or, at least, a satire, of superheroes before going goofy in the third act. That still endeared towards people because the film readily admitted that you'd have to be fucking nuts to want to be a costumed hero. Plus, it was well directed and written.

The second misses the point of the first film and ends up becoming a parody of the first film instead of pursuing or expanding on the ideas introduced by Kick-Ass. More of a lost potential kind of thing. Plus, it was gratuitously violent and incredibly vulgar to a point where it turned people off.

Not to say that I didn't enjoy it. It's a guilty pleasure of mine, but I do understand why people would hate it especially in light of the first movie.
 

Red Mammoth

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Sep 2, 2011
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I didn't hate it, but I feel it wasn't as good as the first. I've read and enjoyed the first 2's comics, but I'm not really a diehard fan, so the changes they made in whatever attempt to make it more appealing/understandable to those that'd only watched the first movie didn't really matter to me as it did to others, (I do wish they'd been able to do the final-fight-showdown in Time Square though, because that could have been awesome). But the one thing I think transitioned really well from comic to movie was Mother Russia's cop-car-massacre-explosion-extraordinaire. Made up some of the lesser parts of the movie for me, but I'm a sucker for Russians and/or explosions.

But I'm really lazy to give all my opinions, and to be honest I don't have all that many...so hell, here's someone else's reason why they didn't like it:

http://whatculture.com/film/kick-ass-2-5-changes-from-the-comic-that-ruined-the-film.php/1
 

AldUK

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Oct 29, 2010
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Honestly, I have never watched Kick Ass 1 to the end. I get maybe halfway through and I have to walk away from it. There's just a lot about the film that strikes a bad chord with me, from the way they portray the girl, the kind of subtle making fun of comic fans and the overuse of ridiculous swearing every scene. I didn't word that very well, but yeah I just felt uncomfortable trying to watch it.

That said, I really really enjoyed Kick Ass 2. All of the things I hated from the first film were gone, I didn't once feel uncomfortable watching the girl's character anymore because she was older and it wasn't quite so pervy. Kick Ass himself felt more of a rounded character and it felt like the tone of the film was a celebration of a culture that to me, felt mocked in the first.

It was a gloriously silly, over-the-top, popcorn movie and in my top 3 comedies from 2013.
 

Ubiquitous Duck

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I remember the high school story arc getting a lot of stick.

Personally I thought the humour in these sections was really quite immature - wasn't there a gun that caused diarrhoea or something? There is also a disconnect with a lot of people with the idea that Chloe Moretz was the kid at school that people marginalised, because she looks more like she belongs with the, as named in Mean Girls, 'plastics' or the hot/cool kids. It was the same comments that came out when she played Carrie. But really the fact that this story was even in kick-ass 2 was a let down, as it just felt like there were two films playing at the same time - on one side the one involving the heroes we care about and, on the other, a really bad high school flic.

The parts with the heroes I found were a lot better. I did not think it lived up to the tone that was put in place in kick-ass - where it would go suddenly from feeling safe to immediate danger as he smashed down to the real world with what his attempts of crime-stopping, as a kid, would have in reality - but I think it was otherwise enjoyable.

The surprise for me came with Jim Carrey. I really, really did not like when I heard that he was cast in the film, as I saw this as them completely missing the mark and they would ask him to be his usual crazy self we have seen in his more recent films. However, the performance he put in I thought was easily the best in the film.

Cap on the top of all of this: I actually missed Nicholas Cage.
 

EeveeElectro

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Private Custard said:
To add to the above, we also had to sit through some high-school 'mean girls' bullshit.

I just wanted Hit Girl to be kicking ass.....not getting dolled up and date-dumped. The whole thing felt so anticlimactic.
Gah, yes! The bit with Union J... An advert for a shit boyband in the middle of a film? Give me a break -.-

I suppose they did as well as they could with Chloe Grace Mortez aging in real life but I just didn't like that bit.
The shoe horned romance with Kick Ass was creepy as fuck too. If you bare in mind she's ELEVEN in that comic, it creeps me out.
Considering the first one was really loyal to the comic book, this one just swayed all over the place.

However, I did enjoy it. Not as much as the first because of the lack of Nicolas Cage but I still thought it was a good movie despite the bad reviews.
 

Azahul

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Apr 16, 2011
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It certainly didn't have any scene that came anywhere near as close to the best from the original ("Two guys, beating up on another, while everyone watched and you want to know what is wrong with me?" Or however that quote goes), but it felt like an ok follow-up. Not great. Probably a 5 or 6 out of 10, if I'm feeling generous. But it was an entertaining diversion and better than a lot of action films, or superhero films for that matter, that I've seen over the last year or two.
 

MetalDooley

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Feb 9, 2010
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To be honest barring the lack of Nic Cage doing his best Adam West impression I probably enjoyed the second one more than the first.Not sure why really.I will say that Hit Girl being a teenager kinda made more sense though as it was more plausible that could beat up grown men than the 10 year old version in the first
 

Private Custard

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EeveeElectro said:
Private Custard said:
To add to the above, we also had to sit through some high-school 'mean girls' bullshit.

I just wanted Hit Girl to be kicking ass.....not getting dolled up and date-dumped. The whole thing felt so anticlimactic.
Gah, yes! The bit with Union J... An advert for a shit boyband in the middle of a film? Give me a break -.-

I suppose they did as well as they could with Chloe Grace Mortez aging in real life but I just didn't like that bit.
The shoe horned romance with Kick Ass was creepy as fuck too. If you bare in mind she's ELEVEN in that comic, it creeps me out.
Considering the first one was really loyal to the comic book, this one just swayed all over the place.

However, I did enjoy it. Not as much as the first because of the lack of Nicolas Cage but I still thought it was a good movie despite the bad reviews.
I sort of enjoyed it. But.....hmmmm....uurrghhh....I didn't!

I hated 'The ************'. I know we aren't supposed to like the villain, but I found him really irritating.

If I were to pick a phrase that best sums the whole thing up, it would have to be 'damp squib'!
 

soren7550

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Dec 18, 2008
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My understanding is that people didn't like it because how how squicky it was, and how it missed the point of the comics.
 

SomebodyNowhere

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the first one had a more focused story compared to 2 having to split so much of its running time between hitgirl trying to be normal and kickass trying to be a hero. I still enjoyed the movie for the most part, but it wasn't near as enjoyable as the first one.
 

farscythe

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Dec 8, 2010
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just watched it last night and really liked it . (it probably helps that i havent read any comic books)
the first one was probably better....but..that one didnt have mother russia or stars and stripes (those two really made the movie for me)
 

Rylingo

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Wasted said:
The high school mean girl thing was out-of-place at its best and incredibly inconsistent at its worst. So Hit Girl who did not care less for these people?s opinion of her throughout the movie, suddenly cared what they thought about her at the moment they ?betrayed? her.
From what I understand, the high school bit was from the Hit Girl comic, not the Kick Ass 2 comic. Basically they took two comics and squished them into a single movie. That might be why it feels a little bit disjointed.

Apologies for the obligatory pimping of my own review on the movie (spoilers I liked it in spite of its problems):
 

WolffgangVW

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Apr 22, 2009
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I really liked it; I would have subbed out Jim Carrey for Ron Perlman and spent a lot less time vamping on the whole 'adolescent with the power and money to act out his revenge fantasies lol', but beyond that i really liked it. I personally liked that Hit Girl wasn't *just* all about the action.
 

SaetonChapelle

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May 11, 2010
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I have never read the comics, so I'm making my judgement based purely on the first movie.
Reasons for disliking it:

-The "Mean Girls" scenario. I suppose others have conversed about this too, but I felt this was highly unnecessary. I felt Hit-Girl would not behave in such a fashion as she did through out this, and I didn't pay money to watch a sadistic little high school girl deal with "bullies". I wanted to see her kicking ass! That, and her scene of "revenge" against the characters seemed unpleasant. Sure, she got back at them, but she didn't learn anything. In fact she is almost worse off. Instead of shrugging away her problems, realizing that overall some people are just ass holes, she retaliates in a more violent manner. Although she's a child, she has been raised to believe this is acceptable behavior, which is not going to help her in the future (assuming she ever even has one after the incidents of the movie).

-Kick ass himself (i haven't seen the movie in a while, can't remember his real name) didn't learn anything in the movie either. Most of the message of the movie, as told a lot by his father, was to not be this superhero. That it's good to help others and do good, but by putting on the mask he is causing even more problems. Included in that is that it was his fault in the first place by being a "hero" he not only created the villain, but in the end his father was killed for it. I expected that by the end of the movie, he would take the message like the other heros, and have his suit be his every day clothing. That he would continue to do good, but instead not include the suit with it, choosing instead to perform while under a more natural disguise. Instead, the entire message is ignored and even after his fathers death he still chooses to wear the suit and continue on this apparent crusade.

-The final fight. Don't get me wrong, this is amazing, and probably really the only part of the movie I enjoyed overall. However, it felt kind of weird. The bad guys, sure, I kind of understand them putting their lives on the line for their goals (we can assume their not totally in the right state of mind in the first place). However, to have these completely normal people, most who are wearing the suits as a "fad", to be facing a gruesome death for whatever reason instead of just calling the authorities never struck me as something most people would do. I can almost chalk it up to "stretching my beliefs", but I couldn't quite do it all the way. I just could never figure out what these good guys had in mind that would have them resorting to putting not only their lives, but the lives of family and friends on the line when there were many others options available.

-The friend being responsible for the death of his father. I could never figure out how this kid was so stupid as to see all those criminals and never once go "hey, I might be in a pretty awful situation. These guys look like the real deal". Especially after the killing of the police officers mid-way through the movie. They made their presence known, and it's not like the media would have never posted a story about these police killers, so how did this kid, in this day and age with our technology, not find out how crazy these people are?! Due partially to him, the main characters father died, yet it's brushed aside pretty quickly.

This is my opinion however, and if anyone can argue them, that would be awesome. I would love to have a better appreciation for this film.
 

tzimize

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bartholen said:
I saw a couple of days ago to my surprise that Kick Ass 2 holds only a 29% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I usually don't follow that site at all, but when I looked at what various critics had said, combined with James King calling it "very very disappointing" and Mark Kermode going so far as putting it on his worst of the year list, I started to think about it more.

And I honestly can't figure out what was so wrong about it. Sure, it wasn't Shakespeare, but it felt like a smooth and proper follow-up and definitely had that special Kick-Ass feel to it. It didn't disappoint me at all and didn't feel like a rehash. In fact, I'm inclined to say it was even better than the first. You may not agree with me, but what was so bad about it that it deserved such a beating from critics?
It was great. The only bad thing about it was the betrayal of Asskick. It was stupid, poorly written and not believable at all. In fact, more or less everything about him was wrong. The betrayal, the fantastic stupidity of giving away Kickass' dads identity AFTER the ************ had killed a dozen cops...and the fact that the good guys didnt realize and feed him to the shark along with the MF...unbelievable.

The rest of the movie was brilliant and I loved it. The first was better, but the sequel was a barrel of laughs as well.