First Hit: An oddly funny and intensely dark action oriented film that is compelling to watch.
My interpretation of the previews was that this would be more comedy than anything else. I was wrong.
This film is also dark and intense. The beginning sets this tone with a young man standing on a very tall building spreading the wings of this superhero costume, the voice over has you believe the voice and person on the building are one in the same. The voice over is talking about the phenomenon as to why more people haven’t tried to become a superhero.
Meanwhile, in the street below, people are standing looking up at the young man as he spreads his wings and jumps off the building. As he speeds towards the ground the crowd gasps and is enthralled. Watching, we all expect him to turn up and either glide or fly to a landing. Instead he just continues straight down crashing head first on to a taxi. Shocking, yes but that isn’t the end of these sorts of scenes.
This film follows the journey of a self proclaimed nerdy young man named Dave "Kick Ass" Lizewski (played by Aaron Johnson) attempting to find his own place in the world by becoming a super hero. Although Dave gets his ass kicked on his first outing as Kick Ass, it gets filmed on mobile phones and these exploits go viral on the internet. He becomes a hero with his own website and emails flood in asking him for his assistance.
In another parallel story, Damon Macready aka Big Daddy (played by Nicolas Cage) and his daughter Mindy aka Hit Girl (played by Chloe Moretz) are practicing their ability to kill and maim efficiently and accurately. They seize on the new wave excitement that Kick Ass is bringing and join him on one of Kick Ass’s attempts to bring justice.
However, what happens is that Big Daddy and Hit Girl (she’s 12 years old) waste the bad guys in a way that shocks Kick Ass. The real goal of Big Daddy and Hit Girl is to kill the town’s mobster and his minions because they killed Big Daddy’s wife.
It is a wild story by Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn and made even more intense and visual by Vaughn’s direction. It is comic book, it is outrageously violent (Tarantino like), and it is touching.
Johnson is really good as this guy who can look nerdy and cool all at the same time. The cool kids see him as nerdy and the nerdy kids see him as cool. As Kick Ass he’s perfect. Cage is his usual wild eyed, yet caring father who is a little twisted. Moretz on the other hand is amazing. She carried off the look and feel of a girl doing all the things that she does as Hit Girl. Crouching behind a foyer sculpture stand she looks frightened like a 12 year old, yet when she steps out to kill 7 men shooting at her, she is a superhero and looks it.
Overall: A very entertaining film, but there are shocks and therefore this isn’t your typical film and it is rated R for a reason.