Fridae

For better or worse, comic book superheroes have become the new folkloric icons of our time since their origins seven or eight decades ago. But there is an element to the concept of the superhero that has always made this reviewer feel uneasy. In most folkloric traditions, such icons as King Arthur, Hercules and Robin Hood did what was right because it was right, otherwise they freely acknowledged their status as mortal men, albeit ones gifted with extreme bravery, skill and intelligence. They were who they were, without an identity to hide behind or needing to make a show of themselves with costumes and gadgets, and showed who they were through their words and deeds. There is something about superheroes that presents instead the narcissism of virtue recognizing itself and branding itself as such. Which tends to be in itself already a bit of a vice. But oh well, I guess in the capitalist age, selling yourself is what everything is about. In this internet age where anyone is afforded his fifteen seconds of fame and William Hung proves a more memorable figure than Clay Aiken or Ruben Studdard because of and not in spite of his ineptitude, Kick-Ass presents us with a figure of our times.

Like the inspirational saga of William Hung, Kick-Ass is about a geek who becomes a superhero solely based on the fact that he shows up in the right place at the right time.  

The geek in question is high school student Dave (Aaron Johnson) The sort of kid who just disappears into the background and that most of the popular kids at school believe is gay, including hot girl Katie (Lyndsy Fonseca). So insignificant is he, not even his best friends suspect that he in fact moonlights as amateur superhero/internet sensation “Kick-Ass”. This inspires a whole new line of superheroes, not the least of which are the formidable team of Big Daddy/Damon Macready (Nicolas Cage) and his daughter, Hit Girl/Mindy (Chloe Moretz), who especially stole the show. Big Daddy is a vengeful ex-cop who has trained his daughter to be the human equivalent of the Killer Rabbit from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The terrific hijinks of this tremendous trio result in headaches for mob boss Frank D’Amico (Mark Strong) and his geeky son (Christopher Mintz Plasse), who also moonlights as fellow caped crusader Red Mist.

Matthew Vaughn, drawing from the source comic by Mark Millar, has created the most kinetic pop art explosion in a while with this fast-paced and funny deconstruction of superhero clichés, referencing directors as diverse as Park Chan Wook and James Cameron and movies as diverse as Thunderball and Scarface while adding his own touches of flashiness. Regardless of the seeming innovation of the premise of “everyman superheroes” it may disappoint to find that it still descends into the same fantasyland that most superheroes inhabit by the end. Vaughn tries to have his cake and almost eats it, and comes up with what is certainly the most entertaining route to take the premise, though it may not be the most artistically integral. There have been a number of independent flicks about everymen superheroes (like Special and Defendor) that take the premise and play it far, far straighter than this movie does, and are either not on Singaporean shores or have yet to be released, and one hopes that the sure success of Kick-Ass does not eclipse those other achievements.

Kick-Ass is overall a splendid example of action filmmaking and a whole lot of popcorn fun. But one sequence strikes this reviewer as being pretty off-key: the ending, which demonstrates a lack of understanding in the structures of heroic myth and sacrifices what would have been the perfect conclusion of the film's themes, in order to lay hopes for a sequel.

Hee En Ming is a professional movie buff and an amateur human being.