The superhero film should be impervious to further reinvention.
'Kick Ass'
We've had an uber-serious "Batman," a Dark Knight with metallic nipples, a drunken superhero who causes more damage than he prevents, and even a sort-of super duck from outer space.
But "Kick-Ass" still manages to wring something fresh out of a seemingly exhausted subject.
Based on the popular comic book, "Kick-Ass" may be the next logical step in the genre's evolution - what if a regular Joe decided to throw on tights and fight crime sans super powers?
He'd get crushed. But that's where this dark but guilty pleasure begins.
Young, nebbishy Dave (Aaron Johnson) doesn't hang with the hipster crowd. He's an outcast more at home with his fellow nerdlings.
But a nagging thought starts eating at him. Why not create a superhero character out of whole cloth - and a diving suit - and go fight crime? What better way to escape conformity and the rut that is his social life?
Thus Kick-Ass is born. And before you know it it's his own buttocks which gets a good thrashing.
Dave isn't the only wannabe crime fighter in town. Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage, having a ball) and his young daughter Hit Girl (Chloe Moretz) are also out battling evil doers, but they're getting better results.
It helps that Hit Girl is a one-person wrecking crew. More on her in a moment.
"Kick-Ass" is several movies in one - a smidgen of "Revenge of the Nerds," a dollop of "Mystery Men" and a heaping helping of "Watchmen's" R-rated theatrics.
Director Matthew Vaughn ("Layer Cake") guides it all with an unsteady hand, nailing the action and pathos but taking far too long to settle on the story's ultimate tone - sheer nastiness. Our heroes take their lumps, and then some.
Johnson makes for an appealing quasi-hero, never pushing too hard on the nerd accelerator but retaining his sense of humility even when fame enters his life.
Audiences will likely be too distracted by Hit Girl to notice.
Moretz gives a flashy performance as the pint-sized hero, a warrior who makes up for her lack of size with sheer brutality. Her eyes blaze beneath her standard issue mask, making her the heir apparent to Dakota Fanning as the next child actor to watch.
But do audiences really want to root for a savage pre-teen in tights?
It's upsetting to say the least to watch her slash her way through the film's cardboard thugs, and Vaughn doesn't skimp on the gore.
One's enjoyment of "Kick-Ass" may rest entirely on a willingness to process her character. And those who can't have a very good argument, even if this critic was able to overlook the moral murkiness.
Mark Strong of "Sherlock Holmes" fame delivers another bracing turn as a film baddie, while McLovin himself - Christopher Mintz-Plasse - stretches a bit to play his conflicted son.
"Kick-Ass" is not for the kiddies, or those who can't stomach the sight of children doing things even adults shouldn't do. But as a slam-bang action vehicle with more than a few twists, "Kick-Ass" sends thunderbolts coursing through the movie house.
Christian Toto is a veteran journalist and film critic whose work appears in The Denver Post, The Washington Times and PajamasMedia.com. His movie reviews are heard on WTOP radio and "The Dennis Miller Show," and he blogs on film at What Would Toto Watch?
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