“Kick-Ass” attempted to tell the story of a wannabe superhero testing his mettle in the real world, adding some grim black humor into the mix. It was far from perfect, but it was still an interesting and different spin on the genre.
“Kick-Ass 2” finds Dave (Aaron Johnson) having retired his Kick-Ass alter ego and living an unspectacular teenage existence. Bored, he decides to become a superhero once again, asking Mindy aka Hit Girl (Chloe Grace Moretz) to take him under her wing. Hit Girl is also going through a crisis of sorts, considering phasing out her vigilantism and becoming a normal high school student. While she wrestles with her identity, an impatient Dave joins a league or like-minded individuals led by Colonel Stars and Stripes (Jim Carrey). Problems arise when Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) returns as a new super-villain and begins his own quest to build an evil superhero team and kill Kick-Ass.
The physicality is impressive during fight scenes (particularly in the ones featuring Hit Girl) and the feature is colorfully shot by cinematographer Tim Maurice-Jones. Early on, there are even a few interesting passages as the socially awkward Mindy attempts to fit in with a nasty clique of popular girls. Unfortunately, the cons begin to ultimately outweigh the pros and the film dumps any interesting ideas introduced.
As in the previous film, attempts are made to depict “real” street crime in a threatening manner. It doesn’t really come off as all that convincing, but the film is still full of violent confrontations that result in limbs being chopped off and numerous dead bodies. Some of the beatings and killings are intended to be harrowing while others appear to be played for laughs. There’s a real disconnect present, and it doesn’t help when the camera lingers and seems to enjoy the brutality being depicted, no matter what the intention.
As for the Mindy subplot, one could find some drama in which she might question why they’re trying to save such selfish people (in fact, there’s only one moment in the entire film when you can see why any character might get some satisfaction from being a superhero). But this aspect is never explored. Instead, these female characters are drawn in the broadest of strokes and exposed as “evil”, resulting in revenge via bodily function gags.
Additionally, a parental figure tells one of the leads what they do isn’t healthy and that there are consequences to their actions. The figure only gets a vague response along the lines of, “You just don’t understand,” and the film does little else to respond to the query. After a while, the audience can’t understand or relate either; the superheroes end up resorting to the same violence the villains are perpetrating and it isn’t much fun to watch.
One can imagine that there would be a lot of difficulty settling on a particular tone and style, and many faults in the film could be overlooked if it were played strictly as a comedy. But it isn’t funny, the behavior of the characters is too bizarre to relate to, and the message is completely fuzzy. Sadly, “Kick-Ass 2” veers from ultra-violent action to scatological humor to earnest superhero film and none of it fuses. The only ones likely to get a real beating are the viewers.