Kick-Ass 2 (spoiler alert)

Let me start off by saying I enjoyed the first Kick-Ass movie. In fact, last summer when I taught my Literature and Film course on graphic novel adaptations, I used Kick-um as a text. I thought the first movie was funny and while violent, it was so over-the-top as to not be believable. Second, I thought there was a definite theme in the movie about voyeurism and the need to watch violence. When Kick-Ass asks someone to call 911, he instead starts filming for Youtube. Likewise, near the climax of the movie, all of Dave’s friends rush to watch the violence being done to Kick-Ass and Big Daddy even when the networks take it off the air. We get this even as we, the audience, are watching this fake violence acted out before us. Dave becomes Kick-Ass because he thinks people don’t do enough to help people, that they instead just watch what happens without acting. The movie asks that question of the audience as well.

Then there is Kick-Ass 2. (And I have not yet read the graphic novel sequel) It’s a movie filled with excessive violence that seems to have no point. Perhaps there is the point that being a super-hero (or vigilante) has consequences, but that seems pretty much a given. Instead, it struck me as a movie that wanted to outdo the violence from the first and see more blood and cruel ways to kill people. It has an attempted rape scene played for humor (see Mike Ryan’s review at Huffington Post) that isn’t funny. Overall, Kick-Ass 2 was a serious disappointment.

Let me know what you think!