Kick-Ass 2

Kick-Ass has defined itself as a superhero movie with heroes wearing silly costumes and little girls brutally beating up tough grown men. That piece of creativity has been appealed by many for smartly satirizing the genre, despite of some absurdity still existing and glorified in the action scenes. For that hype three years ago, here comes the sequel that still got the good old charms of its predecessor. The bigger difference now is the theme they are supposed to present seems tougher, but the action has also gotten strangely out of hand. While those upgraded elements can be a bit uneven, it's not really hard to enjoy the overall film since it's still quite hilarious and utterly entertaining. Although it only has little sincerity in its own message, there's no denying that Kick-Ass 2 is a lot of fun.

Kick-Ass 2 is somewhat like any sequel, it heightens the scale to look even more exciting than the first one. Other than that, the rest is mostly the same. As usual, the most entertaining parts are having fun with the characters and some superhero satires. Even if it takes a different direction, the tone surprisingly sticks to the picture which is a joy. Everything is just enjoyable and amusing, but we all know that these movies are more than being fun. It always takes some darker themes so it can come close to reality. The film suddenly becomes intriguing when it discusses about the consequences of being involved in crime fighting, but those elements didn't stray far enough.

The better surprise you're gonna see here is the performance of Chloë Moretz. She already stole the show in the first film, but here she has grown her Mindy Macready into a much mature character than just a simple violent crass as Hit-Girl is, and as Hit-Girl she is still pretty awesome. Aaron Johnson is charming as always as Kick-Ass. Jim Carrey is also delightful as Colonel Stars and Stripes. The villains are kind of caricatures, but the one who played their leader, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, brings both wimpy and menace to keep him from being too sinister.

Noticeably, the style of the last director was more inspired than the new one's. Though, the aesthetics are intact. What people might brag about is how preposterous the action scenes are. I understand it's supposed to be tongue-in-cheek and faithful to the illustrations of the graphic novel, but the fact that they're trying to avoid these heroes and villains from being "Super", it seems they can't help to justify that and make it all incredibly badass anyway. Besides, everyone is only interested about how violent it is. I just wish it has more of those anti-hero parts to make it feel human. Otherwise, people will cheer on how awesome these set pieces are, because it's inevitable to call them awesome.

The ones who will likely enjoy Kick-Ass 2 more are the fans. It's almost too identical. Same entertainment quality, same amount of laughs, and got ironically ridiculous action scenes(from jetpack to lawnmower); while we get an impressive performance from Chloë Grace Moretz and a story that has potential of being compelling. It has the same pros and cons, but bigger. Although bigger, I think the original has smarter execution. I guess the film wants to focus more on its coolness than the morality and humanity it suggests. In other way, Kick-Ass 2 is good enough as a blockbuster and a competent sequel.

KICK-ASS 2 is the inevitable follow-up to the surprise comic book hit, which mixed broad comedy with hard action to provide one of the freshest superhero movies in years. This sequel is more predictable, following a familiar action-movie template while mixing in some terrible humour along the way.

The tone of the film is uneven with a mix of genuinely good, well-choreographed action moments with cheesy interludes that wouldn't be amiss in a Z-grade movie. For instance, the final warehouse fight is large scale, hard-hitting and great fun, but the awful green-screen effects on that van fight really take you out of it. Some of the new supporting characters are pretty interesting, particularly the unstoppable Mother Russia, and John Leguizamo bags a very funny supporting role.

Unfortunately, Wadlow is a better director than he is a scriptwriter and he has little idea what to do with his leading characters. Taylor-Johnson is given little to do and feels like an extra in his own movie, while the whole sub-plot with Chloe Grace Moretz going to high school is just stupid, juvenile and needless. The humour is also more uneven this time around, reaching a real low with the ridiculous vomit and diarrhoea scenes.

As ever, KICK-ASS 2 gets by for the wealth of action alone, and the willingness to go one step further than most PG-13 rated Hollywood superhero flicks. Jim Carrey is the film's real ace, bagging the best role as Colonel Stars and Stripes. Carrey is unrecognisable throughout and his own brand of relentless energy marks a real high point. In reality, KICK-ASS 2 is a pretty superficial and unnecessary sequel, but fans of the first film are sure to enjoy it anyway.

Four years after the death of Frank D'Amico, Daze Lizewski (Aaron-Taylor Johnson) has retired from the role of Kick-Ass and returned to the tedium of high school. Mindy Macready (Chloe Grace Moretz) is now cared for by her father's former partner and her new guardian Detective Marcus Williams (Morris Chestnut) but she still operates as Hit-Girl and is soon rejoined by Dave as Kick-Ass. Following Marcus' discovery that Mindy is still doing operating as Hit-Girl he makes her promise to give up Hit-Girl which she does and gives High School life a try. Dave now having lost Hit-Girl and his girlfriend Katie (Lyndsy Fonseca) due to a misunderstanding, Dave seeks out other Superheroes who've been inspired by Kick-Ass leading him to the team Justice Forever lead by Colonel Stars and Stripes (Jim Carrey), a former mob enforcer turned born again Christian who does everything from feeding the homeless to raids on human traffickers. Meanwhile Chris D'Amico (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) still angry over the death of his father swears revenge on Kick-Ass and adopts the supervillain persona of The MFer and recruits a team of thugs giving them superhero names with his mission being to kill Kick-Ass, everyone he loves, and burn the city to the ground.

One of the most talked about films of 2010 was unquestionably the Mathew Vaughn helmed adaptation of the Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. Comic Kick-Ass which saw massive critical praise and okay if unspectacular box office that was dwarfed by its online footprint (being one of the most pirated movies of 2010). The production team made the movie unsure if it would even be distributed and following the lukewarm box office, doubt was cast there'd even be a sequel. In 2012 however a sequel was set with Universal picking up the distribution from Lionsgate and getting much of the principal cast from the previous film to return (with some recasting for characters like Dave's friend Todd or Marcus Williams). Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman were unavailable to return, but stayed on as producers and left the sequel in the hands of Cry Wolf and Never Back Down director Jeff Wadlow. The movie also had controversy with its release, however unlike the "indecency" cries from groups like the American Family Association, the protests came from Jim Carrey who in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting withdrew his support for film no longer being able to "support that level of violence". Carrey's comments were met with respectful disagreement from his cast members like Chloe Grace-Moretz and Kick-Ass creator Mark Millar, and while the controversy probably wasn't a huge presence in people's minds, the top tier actor in your movie refusing to promote it probably didn't help. Upon release Kick-Ass 2 opened in fifth place behind Lee Daniels' The Butler and holdovers Elysium, We're the Millers, and Disney's Planes. The movie also lacked the critical support of the first movie with Kick-Ass 2 receiving mixed to negative reviews with fan reception also more lukewarm. Kick-Ass 2 does carry over some of the charm and violent fun of the first movie, but it also stumbles a few times and is lacking Vaughn's stylish direction as well as the sharpness of Vaughn and Goldman's writing.

One of the major missteps is definitely in the sidelining of Hit-Girl/Mindy, while the opening 20 minutes are a strong re-introduction for both her and Dave/Kick-Ass, the moment Marcus makes her promise to give up Hit-Girl and be an ordinary High School girl the movie essentially kneecaps itself by taking the break out character from the first movie and having that character dial back and conceal everything the audience loved about her. And what do they do with her? Basically have her go thrown sub-Meangirls high school satire that doesn't have the sharpness of Tina Fey and is instead written by the guy who gave you Never Back Down. The Mindy subplot is complete trash as Mindy hangs around with three interchangeable popular girl stereotypes who are all one note characters and aside from a scene where Mindy uses an illegal DARPA weapon to make the girls vomit and defecate themselves it's just filler whose only purpose is to keep the most popular character doing absolutely nothing.

In terms of the other parts of the movie, they're reasonably pretty solid. Despite Dave getting dumped by his love interest, Katie, from the first movie in a pretty stupid misunderstanding that he was having an affair with Mindy (in what feels like a retroactive attempt to bring the comic's take on Katie character which is a negative for me), the scenes with Dave as Kick-Ass meeting the eccentric team of Justice Forever consisting of gay superhero Insect-Man, husband and wife team Remembering Tommy (so named for their missing son whom they hope to see again), and of course the head of Justice Forever Colonel Stars and Stripes played by an almost unrecognizable Jim Carrey. Colonel Stars and Stripes is undeniably one of Kick-Ass 2's best new characters with his hard knuckle approach to crimefighting counterbalance by his contempt for vulgarity and profanity as well as a strict moral code that involves little things like escorting women home or volunteering a homeless shelters, the character feels like a more altruistic take on Vinnie Jones' character Big Chris for Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking barrels. It's honestly sad Carrey couldn't stand by this movie because it's a great performance from him and the character abhors violence when possible and carries an empty gun to make that point. What doesn't work as well is the replacement love interest for Dave in Lindy Booth's Night-B*tch who like Kick-Ass is also a costumed vigilante and dates Kick-Ass but only when the both of them are in costume and say what you will about Katie from the first movie, but she was a likable three dimensional character. Here Night-B*tch is more fantasy than fully formed character (a statement even shared by Mindy/Hit-Girl).

Christopher Mintz-Plasse is really good as Chris D'Amico/The MFer and is probably the one point I'll give to Jeff Wadlow over Vaughn and Goldman. While Vaughn and Goldman tried to humanize Chris by giving him remorse over betraying Kick-Ass and making his admiration of him genuine as opposed to the comic where Chris was all too happy to betray Kick-Ass, here Wadlow seems like he understands the character a bit more and Mintz-Plasse's performance is much stronger as a result. While his performance was good in the first Kick-Ass film, the uncertain approach Vaughn and Goldman took to the character left Chris somewhat lacking in definition so there wasn't solid ground for Mintz-Plasse to plant his feet on. Chris is much closer to his interpretation in the Mark Millar comic as this gleefully sadistic wannabe villain who's basically just an internet troll with mommy and daddy's money. He makes a solid antagonist and dark mirror image of Dave and its an absolute blast hating him. The MFer also surrounds himself with some solid allies such as an always welcome turn from John Leguizamo as Chris' bodyguard Javier who's really only tolerating Chris because "a job's a job" and yet still tries to keep Chris' delusions somewhat grounded and the interactions between Leguizamo and Mintz-Plasse are quite enjoyable. The crew of "supervillains" he assembles are also an eclectic bunch with the standout being Olga Kurkulina as Mother Russia an ex-KGB agent who supposedly ate her cellmate in Siberia. Kurkulina is an absolute blast playing the character like a female Ivan Drago From Rocky IV and she has the best action scene in the movie bar none.

Unfortunately the direction and action pales in comparison to the first film. Despite Kick-Ass and Kick-Ass 2 having very similar budgets, Kick-Ass 2 feels a lot cheaper and emptier in comparison to its predecessor. I think a big reasons is in the approach taken by Vaughn versus Wadlow. In the original film New York was pretty empty, but Vaughn worked around his limitations utilizing limited locations and smaller numbers of people to his advantage and also added some great energy to the action sequences with Big Daddy's Warehouse attack, Hit-Girl's night vision/strobe light scene, or the finale in Frank D'Amico's penthouse there's a lot stand-out moments in Kick-Ass. Kick-Ass 2 however, aside from that one scene where Mother Russia takes down 10 cops in suburbia most of the action is pretty generic and workman like. A scene with Kick-Ass and another superhero Dr. Gravity is loaded with shakey cam, and a freeway chase where Hit-Girl is finally allowed to be the character we love is filled with distracting compositing and greenscreen, and the finale takes place in what looks like a slightly dressed up warehouse with all these costumed individuals looking more like a riot at Comic-Con than a proper finale. There are some solid moments such as a scene where Chris tries to be villainous by committing rape only for his character to not be able to "perform" (which was apparently changed from actually happening in the comic so that's probably for the best) but everything feels really flat and reserved with a character death in the film clearly trying to aim for the same pathos as Big Daddy's death, but it fails to get the emotional resonance it's aiming for.

Kick-Ass 2 isn't bad, but it doesn't capture the magic of its predecessor. The movie makes some major missteps in benching its breakout character Hit-Girl for 70% of the movie and doing some really stupid "plot cleanup", and while we do get some good new additions with Leguizamo's Javier or Jim Carrey's Colonel Stars and Stripes they're underutilized. There's still some solid charm coming from the expansion of Kick-Ass's world of costumed eccentrics but with considerably less style on display with Wadlow's direction the budget makes itself more noticeable and there's fewer standout sequences as a result. If you're a fan of the first one watch it once, but it's a step down.

If the first Kick-Ass movie was that cool cousin, who's a bit rough around the edges and definitely a badass, then this film is that young brat, who tries to imitate said cousin, but only partly succeeds.

The first Kick-Ass film had a few good things going for it. It had a completely new take on the superhero genre, it skillfully juggled both effective comedy and brutally violent action scenes, plus it had some pretty convincing characters and a dark storyline. The sequel, on the other hand, fails at the juggling part. The action scenes are still pretty brutal and effective, but the humour lacks that razor sharp edge that made the first one so believable despite its premise. Instead it relies on racial stereotypes and potty humour, which just isn't that funny.

Add in a lackluster storyline that honestly feels like watching tennis. First one character has a change of heart, then few minutes later he/she bounces back and another character decides to change his/her opinion, immediately after which the first one changes his/her stand. Rinse and repeat. A compelling and captivating story this does not make, especially when the villain generates mostly embarrassed facepalms and the final battle rejuvenates some of the first clichés the first film so artfully dodged.

That being said, the production values are still excellent, some of the new characters are pretty interesting (though there's way too many of them), I still like both Kick-Ass (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Hit-Girl (Chloë Grace Moretz) and they had some really good scenes together. If you liked the first film and want to see the storyline continued, this one is worth checking out if you're not expecting miracles.

I loved the first one and have been waiting for this with great anticipation! When I saw it on Comcast On-Demand I immediately rented it. Like most sequels, this wasn't as good as the first and it's hard not to make comparisons to the first movie.

The first thing I noticed was the lack of a good soundtrack that went with the first movie. Scenes like Hit-Girl whooping ass to Joan Jett's "Bad Reputation", or the old Banana Splits song "Tra La La" Song totally made the first one awesome for me. The soundtrack was as important as the characters.

As the movie was unfolding I kept waiting for some funny/rocking music to play. Unfortunately, I was pretty let down that they didn't spend the money to acquire some interesting/funny/rocking songs for this movie.

Then the plot was sort of handicapped by the fact the characters had matured. I felt the actors all did a good job, but the built in humor that came along with an innocent naive Kick-Ass character getting his butt beat, or the irony of a 10 year old foul mouthed girl killing someone with the same zeal she would pursue a boy band with was gone.

I think they spent a little to much time developing the idea of a group of super hero's and and not enough time developing Kick-Ass & Hit-Girl characters. Overall, I liked it, and I'm sure most will... It just wasn't as fresh and new as the original.