Kick-Ass 2: Average and Schlocky

It’s been three years since we’ve seen Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl on the big screen and for a comic lover like myself, it has been too long. Of course, Marvel has delighted us with The Avengers, and we’ve even witnessed the end of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, but there’s something about the Kick-Ass franchise that is insanely fun and relatable despite its overall absurdity. Maybe what’s been missing from theaters is a story about ordinary people without real superpowers (or crazy amounts of money) doing some good in the world. But after seeing Kick-Ass 2, I’m sorry to say that it is still missing.

Dave Lizewski (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), now a high-school senior who has taken a break from leading his double life as the crime-fighting hero known as Kick-Ass. He looks wimpy and nerdy and quite out of shape until he has the urge to start fighting crime once again. The costumed crime-fighting fad has given birth to a few new heroes since the end of Kick-Ass and Dave wants to get back in on the action he started. He recruits the help of Mindy Macready (Chloë Grace Moretz), a freshman who just so happens to also be the superhero named Hit-Girl. Dave knows Mindy from their past crime fighting escapades, but the two keep their distance at school. Dave also knows that Mindy has been cutting class to secretly continue her superhero training. Pretty soon, Dave has become Mindy’s apprentice, much like Mindy was her dad’s apprentice in the first film, and Mindy doesn’t hold back when it comes to getting Dave back into kickass shape.

Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) from the first installment is reborn as a super villain aptly called “The Motherfucker.” I’m attributing most of the film’s flaws to this character. Mintz-Plasse does a fine job reprising his role as the son of a mob boss, but The Motherfucker is just not believable as a super-villain. His main goal is to kill Kick-Ass for blowing up his father with a bazooka in the first film. Such revenge is understandable. However, The Motherfucker himself does not do anything. He can’t fight; he can’t even recruit his own henchmen. He’s just a kid with a huge amount of money that seems to need a good, long time-out and the character is created out of one bad joke after another.

Thankfully, The Motherfucker doesn’t take over the movie. Kick-Ass joins a rag-tag league of superheroes, lead by Colonel Stars and Stripes (Jim Carrey). They do everything—from feeding the homeless to busting a prostitution ring. The Colonel is an interesting character and does a lot to help give Kick-Ass a purpose again. Even the other odd members of the group, called Justice Forever, help take away from the absurdity of the Motherfucker and give the audience some real characters to root for. And while Dave continues his quest to become a super hero again, Hit-Girl attempts to become a normal teenager, which is as ridiculous as it sounds.

But, in the world of Kick-Ass and Kick-Ass 2, ridiculousness is to be expected. After all, we are talking about a world where a kids (and some adults) dress up as super heroes and fight crime. Kick-Ass 2, however, removes most of the coolness of the first film and replaces it with penis jokes and unnecessary violence. I’m not saying that the original was without unnecessary violence, but it seems that the only selling point for Kick-Ass 2 is the violence and the humor, which, quite frankly, isn't funny. The only characters that are able to produce any amount of laughter from the audience were Hit-Girl and Colonel Stars and Stripes. And even Hit-Girl is not as impressive as she once was.

Hit-Girl’s young age and extremely adult mouth in the first film caught the audience off-guard and contributed to her popularity and ultimate badass-ness. Expecting to be blown away by her once again, I was disappointed to find that the main action sequences were spoiled in the trailers and that the only c-word in the film is spoken in Russian. Hit-Girl just didn’t pack the same punch in this sequel. The character was marketed as the same tough-girl from the first film, but most of the plot is centered on Mindy Macready, a normal high school girl trying to experience love and popularity, instead of the crime fighting tough girl that made the first film so great. I was hoping to see Hit-Girl evolve into the crime fighter her father wanted her to become, but instead she is simply an outlet for a few fight scenes and some mediocre one-liners. Even if the direction was to make Mindy more of a “real girl” with real emotions and some resemblance of a typical high school life, it isn't executed in a way that is satisfying or believable.

Still, Moretz’s character did have the best moments of the film, both as Mindy and Hit-Girl. There are definitely some great bits that bring back memories of why I had enjoyed the first film so much. What is missing, however, is a better sense of continuity from the first movie to the second. After watching Kick-Ass, it’s almost impossible to believe that the plot of Kick-Ass 2 could follow. I had hoped to see Kick-Ass, Hit-Girl and Justice Forever take on real-life bad guys, not idiotic villains like The Motherfucker and company.

The first movie left me feeling like I could take on the world; the second left me hoping that I wouldn’t have to see it again. The film seems to want to insist one thing: you don’t have to be in a costume to be a super hero. But when the heroism isn’t even that great with costumes, that assertion becomes hard to believe. More of a focus on character building instead of over-emphasized violence and vulgar humor would have made this film more enjoyable. And with the movie ending with a lead for a possible third installment, I surely hope that the franchise can get back on track.