By Noah Redfield, Staff Writer
What if there were real superheroes really in the real world? In the age of YouTube and Myspace, how would the masses react to somebody dressing up in spandex and standing up for the little man? These questions are at the heart of one half of Matthew Vaughn’s “Kick-Ass.” As for the other half…well, I’m getting a little ahead of myself.
Aaron Johnson plays the titular superhero who starts out as an awkward comic book-reading adolescent who, in response to the minor inconvenience of constantly getting mugged, devises his own alter-ego and eventually finds himself fighting off a gang of street thugs who are attacking an innocent man. Bystanders capture the event on their phones, and within an instant, Kick-Ass is a cultural icon, inspiring other spandex-clad heroes and enraging one particular mob boss (Mark Strong).
The key to a good adaptation is that one has to jettison all mechanics and devices that only work for the artwork’s original form (hence Stanley Kubrick outright ignoring the original source material when he adapted “The Shining.”) Now, you would think that adapting one visual medium into another would be a walk in the park, but filmmakers have struggled greatly with turning hyperbolic graphic novels into tangible cinematic worlds, mainly because they’re usually more interested in looking cool than exploring the themes they set up in the first place. Although there are times when “Kick-Ass” suggests something akin to an emotional truth, more often than not it remains on the surface.
Director Matthew Vaughn began his career producing movies for Guy Ritchie and both filmmakers share a stylish aesthetic best suited for commercials: glossy lighting, caffeinated editing and an endlessly hip soundtrack. The tableau is always lively but it’s also empty. This would be fine if “Kick-Ass” knew it had nothing to say from the beginning, but the film clearly establishes itself in the first act as a satirical deconstruction of the superhero genre. That’s why it’s so disappointing when it eventually wimps out and morphs into the very thing it purported to deconstruct and satirize.
This fatal flaw is best represented by its most hyped and marketed character: Hit-Girl (Chloë Grace Moretz), an 11-year-old superhero whose father (Nicolas Cage) raised her to exact revenge on Strong’s mobster. We’re introduced to this little girl by watching her viciously slaughter a gang of drug dealers as though she’s the spawn of Jason Voorhees. Not only is she actually a superhero, which directly contradicts its own premise, but she’s also an under-aged Jeffrey Dahmer in the making, and because the film has a pre-teen worldview, we’re supposed to find this cute rather than hopelessly disturbing. And no, it’s not offensive or morally bankrupt as some have suggested, it’s just stupid. This is the moment when the film splits in two: A clever and ironic send-up of the superhero mythos, and a brainless and non-ironic exercise in fanboyism that isn’t worthy of the superhero mythos. It’s basically “Hancock” for hipsters.
“Kick-Ass” isn’t terrible by any means, partly because the performances are all good (Strong and Cage being the stand-outs) and partly because there is enough evidence of an entertaining and intelligent film trying to break out. Sadly, as per usual with this genre, style triumphs over substance, and the result is nothing more than a smug and infantile mess. I’m still waiting for the superhero film that truly takes the subject seriously as only M. Night Shyamalan’s “Unbreakable” has thus far, but maybe that’s just as ridiculous as believing a man can fly.
Aaron Johnson stars as the title role in Matthew Vaughn’s film “Kick-Ass.” (Photo Courtesy of Lionsgate Films)