Spoiler alert! This discusses key points of Kick-Ass. You should go see it before reading this post.
I saw Kick-Ass last night in what must have been the hottest cinema screening of all time – by the end, I was convinced I sweated away 8kg of my body fat just by sitting there, but it was worth it because the film was a lot of fun. For me, there isn’t a second of it I’d consider boring or controversial, but others I saw it with raised concerns about its levels of violence (or rather, how it’s presented).
Interestingly, I haven’t heard many complaints about the idea of pre-teen superhero Hit-Girl (Chloe Moretz) killing people; instead, there’s one particular scene, where her father, ‘Big Daddy’ (played by Nicolas Cage) is burned to death in front of her eyes, that caused mixed reactions among those around me.
Of course, glance around the web and you’ll find there’s any number of publications that object to the overt violent content within the movie, but there’s something about this particular scene that could be deemed going too far – though I’m not personally offended by anything in Kick-Ass (I like to think I have a thick skin when it comes to this kind of stuff), I see why somebody of a sensitive disposition might think it goes a shade too far in this instance.
A daughter – who, it’s been established, doesn’t have the greatest of lives and has had a fundamentally horrible upbringing – loses the only person she cares about in her life. I think, up until that point, the violence had only ever been portrayed as a jokey factor within the story. It was intended to shock, but there are some that will find the transition between comedic and dramatic violence a little tough to take.
I don’t, however, believe it can dispel a person’s belief that Kick-Ass is generally a fun piece of popcorn cinema. Aside from this one instance, I generally believe it’s an all-round amusing piece of work that both reminded me of why I loved comic books, while also surprising with the strength of its performers (specifically Moretz, Mark Strong and lead Aaron Johnson).
By all means share your thoughts on this. Kick-Ass is on general release now.
