Kick Ass 2

                                                                   

        In 2010 a movie came out that instantly became one of those “have you seen it” movies. It was easy to lose for most people, because it was another movie based off a comic book. It was not like most comic book movies, well maybe a little like Batman, only if he was in high school and had no money, wait that’s Spider-Man.  Anyway “Kick Ass” was about a regular teenager who wanted to fight crime. No special powers, just a green scuba suit, a couple batons and a can do attitude.

     The reason “Kick Ass” was so fun, was because it combined action and comedy and did it in the right way, mostly due to director Matthew Vaughn. Sometimes capturing lighting in a bottle twice can be a hard thing to do, and not many movies franchises have pulled it off. David Lizewski/Kick-Ass (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) doesn't wear his Kick Ass costume to often anymore. He has just become your average high school senior trying to figure out his life. Meanwhile Mindy/Hit-Girl (Chloe Grace Moretz) knows what she wants to do with her life, that is continue what her and her father did before his untimely death. Kick-Ass decides he wants to get back to being a super hero and starts to train with Hit-Girl, so that they can become the new dynamic duo. Kick-Ass soon finds other guys like himself, who wear a costume to help keep the streets clean. Chris D’Amico (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) still wants revenge on Kick-Ass for blowing up his father with a bazooka. So D’Amico forms a group of bad guys, which sets up the ultimate good vs. evil battle royale.

       “Kick-Ass 2” will be enjoyed by a certain group of people. The kind that enjoy over the top violence and of course the comic book series itself. While not as good as the first one, “Kick-Ass 2” has enough good moments to make the movie still fun. Gone is Matthew Vaughn, who did such a great job with the first film. He is replaced by Jeff Wadlow, who does not quite live up to Vaughn’s shadow. While “Kick-Ass” relied on humor just as much as action, Wadlow, ups the action and cuts back on the laughs. In fact most of what laughs are generated are provided by Mintz-Plasse. The Flow of the movie gets thrown off a little as Hit-Girl tries to fit in at school and is taken in by the “cool” girls, who of course only try and embarrass her. The best part of the film, are the fight scenes, which get more elaborate as the movie progresses. “Kick-Ass” was one of those movies that I would have been happy with just the one. I think just because something is popular, you don’t always have to make another. With that said, “Kick-Ass 2” is a good movie on its own, but just doesn't kick as much ass as the original.

Brian Taylor