Kick Ass

As the film started and the Universal logo appeared I was gripped by an intense impatience for the film to be mine on the screen. I also felt  a less helpful anxiety about that never happening. I blame this on watching two old school cinematic movies almost back to back. This, like Robin Hood, is cinema on a big canvas. The screen was filled with the frame, which is becoming almost exclusive to films with huge budgets nowadays, but was the norm for the 80's films I grew up watching, such as Die Hard or Ghostbusters. 


Kick Ass is completely different to all other comic book movies. The film (and graphic novels by Mark Millar) is undeniably rooted more in truth and personal experience than most superhero films. I've never seen Batman have a solitary cry in front of a mirror after a particularly savage beating. I've also never seen Clark Kent pretend he is gay to fire into Lois Lane. Kick Ass is partly about how bad an idea it would be if you actually became a masked vigilante. Especially if you become an efficient crime fighter, as you turn into a mass murdering psychopath. (The film does not shy away from the brutality of killing eight or so foes, no matter how imaginatively they are dispatched). It took me a while to figure out why the violence was so surprising, and then I realised that most superheroes don't kill, they just injure. Hit Girl, the best superhero ever created, is a rampaging, lethal, 13 year old. Even more shockingly according to the press uproar, she has 'cunt' in her vocabulary. .


Matthew Vaughn's film has everything that superhero films should not have: a sense of humour; changes in tone; real life tragedy; and alter ego's that fake being homosexual to spread fake tan over a girl they fancy. This is a brilliant, original and daring film, mostly because of the creation of Hit Girl. 

Robin Hood

This is Ridley Scott in less showy mode. Style yields to story: this is of a most masculine variety of hollywood blockbuster, with no time to lament in slow motion mid-battle. There is a dignified and heroic performance from Russell Crowe which reminded me of a good, old fashioned, Clint Eastwood. This is how men should be. Lesser men are either French, liars or effeminate weaklings. 


Scott makes directing a film of this scale look breathlessly easy. The two hours soar by, and its only in the last half hour you realise that it becomes a more traditional Robin Hood film. Co-incidentally, it is the poorest section of the film - where a strong Maid Marian takes feminism and realism for a ride and crashes into historical common sense. It has a 21st century sensibility, with nods to contemporary events such as a war in the east (Robin openly criticises the massacre of muslims in the crusades) and a bankrupt country. 


There is no doubt this was made as a prequel with an eye to a lucrative franchise. However, some bold decisions were made (such as the casting of relatively old leading actors in Cate Blanchett and Russell Crowe) that makes this forgivable. I'm even looking forward to the next one, so we'll see how much money it makes to ensure the sequel. Presumably directed by Michael Bay and starring a Megan Fox as Maid Marian.