Super-Cember Day #16: Kick-Ass 2 (2013)

(Originally posted December 16th, 2017)

Alright, so I'm not sure if it's because of the movie I saw last night, but Kick-Ass 2 (2013) was actually a really good movie. I'd heard that it wasn't as good as the first one, and it definitely isn't, but it's still a really good time, and it's something really unique in the realm of superhero movies. Starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Dave Lizewski/Kick-Ass, Chloe Grace Moretz as Mindy Macready/Hit-Girl, Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Chris D'Amico/The Motherf***er, Clark Duke as Marty/Battle-Guy, Morris Chestnut as Detective Marcus Williams, John Leguizamo as Javier, Donald Faison as Doctor Gravity and Jim Carrey as Colonel Stars and Stripes.

Kick-Ass 2 (2013)

This might seem a little odd to start the review off, but one of the best things about this movie is its message. It's something that's really important: the idea that you don't need to wear a mask to do good. That seems like such a simple idea, but that's really what the entire movie is leading towards; it might even be what the entire franchise is about, and it's done so well here. I personally haven't seen another superhero movie do this message, or at least, do it as well as this movie did. It's actually a really nice note the film ends on, and I'm not going to go too much into it here, but it's really well done, and it surprised me that a film with this tone has such an important message behind it.

Clark Duke as Battle-Guy

Aaron Taylor-Johnson is back as Kick-Ass, and he really impressed me here. Moreso than in the in the first movie, actually, his performance in some scenes really blew me away. But, do you know what blew me away more? When I looked him up and realised he also played Quicksilver in Avengers: Age of Ultron. I had a look at the two side-by-side and he was almost unrecognisable. It's a credit to his range as an actor, really. Chloe Grace Moretz is also once again impressive. I hate that she's just a year younger than me and she's this talented. Mindy Macready has a really genuine arc in this movie that I kind of expected, but was still really interested in watching. At times I thought it got a bit formulaic, but at other times I was stunned at where they went with it. I love a movie that can keep me guessing even with a familiar storyline.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Kick-Ass

Christopher Mintz-Plasse is a surprisingly imposing villain here. I'd be a little more critical of him if the movie didn't call him out on what he is: a whiny teenager shouting at the world. He doesn't really do anything evil himself, but he's the one barking out orders and paying people to do the really unsettlingly evil things he wants done. His role really is just the 'guy-in-the-suit', but it's a really unique spin on that in that the 'suit' is a supervillain costume. I also love how he gets so sucked in to this comic-book persona that he completely loses sight of the real world. Something really tragic happens to him at some point in the movie and he welcomes it as he sees his backstory is now complete. That's a really fresh take on the supervillain formula, and I'm really okay with is. The movie takes him just seriously enough to be considered a legitimate threat, but they're not afraid to have fun with him either. It could go either way, and Mintz-Plasse's portrayal really helps with that.

Christopher Mintz-Plasse as the Motherf***er

Jim Carrey is absolutely fantastic in this movie. In Batman Forever, he was basically just playing himself, but here he puts just enough of himself into the role but not so much to the point where I only saw Jim Carrey here. His character is fascinating to watch, and I loved what little we got of his backstory, because we didn't need much. It's Jim Carrey in an army costume with a pet dog wearing a mask painted to look like an American flag: it's spectacularly entertaining. I never knew I wanted to see Jim Carrey beating up gangsters with a baseball bat while 'When the Saints Go Marching In' gets hummed in the background, but I got it in this movie and I was incredibly happy with it. I only wish there was more of him in the movie, but I understand why they wanted to use him sparingly.

Jim Carrey as Colonel Stars and Stripes

My only real criticism with the movie is a lot of the high school drama. The movie focuses on a teenage girl trying to fit in, so of course we have the bitchy, popular girls who initially accept her as one of their own and then embarrass her, blah blah blah, seen it a million times and it's never interesting. I do enjoy how blatantly transparent these girls are about how awful they are, but I've seen this trope done so many times, and I was really disappointed to see Mindy Macready, of all people, getting sucked into it. The only positive about this subplot is the comeuppance is delightfully merciless, and exactly what I wanted to get out of Mindy Macready interacting with high school brats, but I would have been happier with it had she not been the one to get sucked in. Maybe it's just because I've seen this subplot done so often, so in a movie that I'm praising so much for how original it is, that kind of let me down.

Chloe Grace Moretz as Hit-Girl

Otherwise, Kick-Ass 2 (2013) is another fantastic movie, and exactly what I needed after last night's awfulness. Both of these movies have been right up my alley, and you better believe I'll be watching these again in the future. 8/10.

Tomorrow: we visit one of the most famous bad comic-book movies of all time. I'm kind of excited, actually, for Batman & Robin.