Kick-Ass 2: A Bloody Sequel That Misses the Mark
While the war on crime took her father, high schooler Mindy Macready (Chloë Grace Moretz) continues to patrol the streets, carving up villains as the superheroine Hit-Girl. Inspired by her example, Dave Lizewski (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), who had abandoned his superhero persona, dons the green spandex once more and joins a superhero team organized by the former mobster Colonel Stars and Stripes (Jim Carrey). Meanwhile, embittered by Dave, the son of a mafia boss, Chris D’Amico (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), declares himself the world’s first real supervillain and assembles an army of psychopaths and criminals.
Fun Fact: In the time between filming the two “Kick-Ass” movies, actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson got married and had two children.
When British director and producer Matthew Vaughn scraped together $30 million in 2008 for an independent adaptation of the comic book “Kick-Ass,” he knew he couldn’t compete with multi-million dollar blockbusters in terms of scale and special effects. So, he won over audiences with something else. His trump cards were the sadistic violence, the irreverent dark humor, and the 11-year-old superheroine Hit-Girl, who took down hulking men and swore like a sailor – all of which would be unacceptable in mainstream films. Vaughn’s film had other merits (like a great soundtrack and masterfully choreographed fight scenes), but these three elements secured “Kick-Ass” the love of audiences and $100 million at the box office. After the film’s release, Chloë Grace Moretz became one of Hollywood’s most sought-after actresses, and Vaughn went on to adapt the “X-Men” comics.
A Change in Direction
Since Vaughn was still immersed in the world of mutants, he had to hand over the director’s chair for “Kick-Ass 2” to American Jeff Wadlow, the director of such “masterpieces” as “Never Back Down” and “Cry Wolf.” (Remember those movies? Exactly.) It was a decision he would regret. Because Wadlow didn’t exactly ruin “Kick-Ass 2,” but he stripped it of most of what made the first film a cult hit.
Losing the Edge
When planning the costume for the Russian supervillain Mother Russia, the filmmakers intended to dress her “decently.” In the end, they stripped bodybuilder Olga Kurkulina down to a bikini to emphasize her muscles.
First and foremost, Wadlow and his team made the second film “realistic.” As a result, the film lost the delightful madness of the predecessor’s best scenes (Flying with a jetpack! A little girl taking down a squad of mobsters!), but it didn’t become more subtle, profound, or heartfelt. On the contrary, “Kick-Ass 2” is noticeably dumber and more clunky than the first film. What’s with Chris’s costume, sewn from a latex S&M slave outfit? What villain with leadership qualities would dress like that? And the main character’s “sickening” revenge on the schoolgirls who bully her is simply unworthy of Hit-Girl. In the comics, by the way, this scene was different. But Wadlow thought that “Kick-Ass 2” wouldn’t survive without toilet humor. And so it goes, down the line. Worse music than in the first film, boring cinematography, an over-reliance on young and not-so-charismatic actors (in the first film, the “youngsters” were supported by Nicolas Cage and Mark Strong, while Wadlow only had Jim Carrey in a few scenes)… Even Hit-Girl looks worse in the sequel. And not just because a 15-year-old superheroine isn’t as impressive as an 11-year-old killer. Her fights aren’t interestingly choreographed, and her storyline seems like a pale imitation of “Carrie.” If the sequel hadn’t retained the original’s energy and bloody violence, it could have been sent straight to the trash.