Greeted with much distaste and controversy in 2010, grown up superhero film Kick Ass did not necessarily seem like it would warrant a sequel. Heavily criticised for it’s gratuitous violence and generally unpleasant tone, there was much trepidation about what a follow up would entail. Well, three years later, it arrives, and it’s as gory and profanity laden as ever.
The film takes place a few years after the original, and sees self-made superhero Kick-Ass (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) retired from his life of fighting crime in a scuba diving suit, having inspired a wave of new home made superheroes who are out patrolling the streets. However, safe, but bored of his new mundane high school life, he joins a group of heroes led by Colonel Stars and Stripes (Jim Carrey) and goes back to protecting the streets with his new gang.
But when the group are hunted by the vengeful Red Mist (now reinvented as The Mother Fucker, played brilliantly by Christopher Mintz-Plasse) it’s time to call in the big guns. However, the big guns just happen to be fifteen year old, knife wielding Hit Girl (Chloe Grace Moretz) who’s busy trying to lead a normal life at school.
Though the original was called Kick Ass, the eponymous lead wasn’t a patch on the real star of the film, Hit Girl, and it’s no different in the sequel. Chloe Grace Moretz stole almost every single scene she was in as the street smart child, and with a larger role in this offering, she’s even better now. Though obviously considerably older, she’s still got every shred of toughness and feistiness that she used to, and is as filthily foul mouthed as ever.
There are a few too many other characters to keep track of, but there are also some notably good performances. Christopher Mintz-Plasse is on fine form as The Mother Fucker (though if I see a more disturbing sight in 2013 than Mclovin from Superbad clad in black latex bondage gear then I will be very, very surprised) and there are a whole host of new characters who add interest, particularly Scrubs star Donald Faison in a small but charismatic role as Doctor Gravity, and the strangely endearing mafia-member-turned-born-again-christian Colonel Stars and Stripes.
A lot of the film’s publicity came when Jim Carey, an advocate for gun law control, publicly withdrew support for the film after the Sandy Hook shootings in Virginia in December, because of the film’s high levels of violence. Whether he’s right or wrong in his stance is an entirely different debate, but it’s worth pointing out that the film maintains, and possibly even elevates, the graphic violence from the first.
The film may look deceptively bright and cartoonish, but with it’s extreme violence, surprisingly high death count and penchant for the C-bomb, this is a super hero film that’s strictly not for children.
That said, most audience members will know already going into Kick Ass 2 whether it’s the sort of film that will appeal to them. Though the general consensus hasn’t been great, I quite enjoyed the first one, and liked the second even more. The delivery of some of the lines are pretty stiff in parts, the vomit scene is just disgusting without being funny and there’s a cringe inducing cameo from Union J (Even littler One Direction types from the X-Factor, if you can’t quite recall) that’s frankly baffling.
Those minor points aside, the film was overall much more enjoyable than was anticipated. It’s fast paced, funny and very entertaining. A pleasant surprise.
Watch the trailer to Kick Ass 2 (NSFW):