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.
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