Movie Breakdown: Kick-Ass 2

People are doing traditional-style reviews all over the web, so we decided to try something different.  In each “breakdown” we’ll take a look at what a film’s marketing lead us to believe, how the movie actually played, and then what we learned from it all.  Read on!

The Impression:

Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl are back!  Game on, cocksuckers.

The Reality:

If you’ve been looking forward to Kick-Ass 2, you won’t be disappointed.  It picks up right where the original movie left off, and then it does what all good sequels should do – it cranks everything to 11.  Now, it’s not perfect.  Director Jeff Wadlow (Never Back Down) does just a so-so job on the fight scenes, and I thought some of the CG work was pretty iffy.  The cast, though, is spot on, and in a weird way I think that’s what actually matters in Kick-Ass 2.  The over the top violence may be entertaining, but without some rather nice work by Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Dave/Kick-Ass) and Chloe Grace Moretz (Mindy/Hit-Girl), the movie would have no heart.  I walked out ready for another adventure with those characters, and I hope we get one before too long.

The Lesson:

Having good characters will always be the key to success.