Movie Review: “Kick-Ass 2”

Kick-Ass was something of a wild-card whenever it was first released 2010, because while there have been comedy-superhero movies before such as Superhero Movie and Mystery Men, none of them actually tried to incorporate emotion into the spectrum as well. Since then, there has also been a movie called Alter Egos, which is entertaining, but once again, didn’t carry what made Kick-Ass something unique and enjoyable. Kick-Ass actually brought about prominent, relevant, and significant storyline while at the same time carrying an over-the-top audacity that is different from a lot of what we had come to expect. Whether the movie is morally reprehensible is irrelevant to me because I’m not a parent that never took the time out to explain to the kid that it’s a fucking movie. If an individual is crazy enough to shoot-up a school, then, the fact of the matter is that he likely had underlining problems that should have been dealt with, instead of pawning the responsibility off on something else. “Oh, but how were we supposed to know?”

The likelihood of a person leaving a theater while yearning to kill somebody is scarce, and if you as a parent are unable to notice the signs and deal with them, then, while it may not be nice, it’s your failures as parents that I cite as the reasoning. I think that I’ll steal a line from a movie by saying that movies don’t create serial-killers, movies just make serial-killers more creative. However, I am not going to poke and prod over that, but I don’t respect or sympathize with the idea at all. Individuals should have the right to distribute their ideas, the fault lies with what the viewer decides to get out of it.

*ca-plunk*

If you don’t recognize that sound, it was the sound of me jumping off my soapbox.

The unfortunate fact is that Kick-Ass 2 doesn’t succeed at capturing the same effects as the first movie, and a lot of that is due to a lot of the campy-humor that can be found in the film. The first movie isn’t exactly perfect, however, it manages to seamlessly combine humor, violence, and emotion into a narrative. This movie makes the same efforts, however, doesn’t succeed. While I do believe that there was some entertainment value to be found in the sequel, I believe that there was a lot of things wrong with it as well. The humor itself felt much more childish, and out-of-place, especially the scenes with Hit-Girl trying to fit in with her high-school classmates. While there is logic behind it in the end, the process wasn’t entertaining, and in-fact, the humor just swung and missed for me in those scenes. Although, I will admit that I had flashbacks to her performance as Carrie that I saw in theaters.

In Kick-Ass, there was an endgame and a message that was trying to be sent, and for the most part, the narrative focuses on getting that idea across. In Kick-Ass 2, there is an endgame and message that is trying to be sent, but for the most part, the narrative focuses on jumbled incoherent concepts of outrage and mistakes in identity. While the ultra-violence exists, the humor and the heart are missing in this rendition. Jim Carey offers something different than what we are used to from him, however, his character fails as a replacement for Nicholas Cage, and as a character in-general, he fails at getting me invested. I will say that there were a lot of ideas that I thought could have been done well if they capitalized on them. I have noticed with this movie and the previous, that they always take inspiration from what has been suggested about other superheroes. There has always been theories suggested that Batman inadvertently creates his own antagonists by being what he is, and Kick-Ass 2 works a lot with that idea. If they would have stayed consistent with it, then, I think it might have actually had enough emotion to capture the same spark as the original.

In conclusion, while I took enjoyment from this film, at least out of seeing more from the characters, the movie fails at capturing the spark of the original, and fails at offering anything that is truly worthwhile to Kick-Ass’ journey.

I’ll be waiting for Kick-Ass 3.