To contradict Chuck D...

The last time I got properly excited about a comic book movie was in early 2003. I'd worked myself up into a rabid frenzy over the big-screen adaptation of one of the few remaining Marvel characters I still actively followed. Two hours later and I walked out into the February sunshine feeling somewhat angry and betrayed. That's what you get for allowing yourself to get worked up for "Daredevil", I suppose.

So the copious reams of hype that have been swelling in the past months directed towards "Kick-Ass", the new superhero flick from Matthew Vaughn, have left me far too jaded to get animated. Cynically tootling along to a preview screening last night, my hopes were moderate at best - I'd heard tales of graphic violence, gleeful profanity and a pre-teen with a mouth like a sewer. Big whoop - I see all that in my day-to-day home life anyway.

And despite such trepidations going in, it actually thrills me to confirm that - for a change - the advance noise about the movie is on-the-nose: "Kick-Ass" is fucking tremendous fun. Essentially a post-modern take on the superhero genre (but free from the morose tone of "Watchmen"), the flick plays out like the most demented origin story ever committed to the screen, set in a similar universe to that which Batman inhabits, but with the lights turned on.

For all its bloodletting (and trust me, "Kick-Ass" is plenty violent) and cussing, the film presents a refreshing change from the current trend of gloomy, oh-it-sucks-being-me superhero tales of recent times. It's bright and breezy, and it thunders along at a cracking pace, rarely stopping to catch a breath (thanks in part to Jon Harris and Eddie Hamilton's amazing editing). Furthermore, every performance is note-perfect: Aaron Johnson's titular character errs on the right side of geeky to make him a sympathetic protagonist; Nicolas Cage's acting barometer is titled firmly towards "crazy" as he lampoons Adam West's Caped Crusader delivery; Chris Mintz-Plasse nicely steps out of the shadow of McLovin as fellow wannabe Red Mist; and Mark Strong makes for a pleasingly hiss-able villain too.

None of these hold a candle, however, to Chloe Moretz as Cage's pint-sized protegee Hit Girl. The Daily Mail have already flung their arms aloft in repulsion at the character - and it's not hard to see why (at least, from their demented "Ban This Sick Filth" viewpoint). An 11 year-old avenger who wields butterfly knives and utters lines that would make Colin Farrell blush, Hit Girl is quite literally one of the coolest figures to grace genre cinema in a long, long time. Moretz swings the character from adorably innocent to shit-your-pants terrifying with ease, and you end up praying that a sequel will be along sooner rather than later, lest they have to recast and get someone else.

If the film has a flaw, then it's that the second act lags a little after the barnstorming opener. And even though the climax is a blast of riotous carnage, it never really pulls any surprises out of the bag to distract from all the gunplay. That said, the central conceit is a doozy - why shouldn't we intervene when our fellow man is in trouble? Are we, as a society, so petrified of one another now that the only people willing to risk their necks are the crazy psychopaths in the stupid costumes?

Regardless, do believe the hype. "Kick-Ass" is exactly that.


"Kick-Ass" opens March 26.