Starring: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Chloë Grace Moretz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse
Dave Lizewski (Taylor-Johnson) and Mindy MacReady (Moretz) are world-famous, although know one would notice if they walked down the street, because they're both the secret identities of the self-made superheroes, Kick-Ass and Hit Girl, respectively. Having inspired other members of the public to serve as superhero vigilantes for justice, Kick-Ass is invited to join a group of masked crusaders whilst Mindy at the advice of her step-father (Morris Chestnut) puts a stop to her heroism in order to live a normal life as she enters high school. However, Chris D'amico (Mintz-Plasse), formerly superhero Red Mist, is looking to avenge the death of his father at the hands of Kick-Ass and takes on a new name, becoming the first self-made super-villain.
Having been a huge hit back in 2010, Kick Ass, a film based on the Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. comic, is now back with the unimaginatively titled, Kick-Ass 2. The original film's director, Matthew Vaughan, has stepped away from the director's chair (though he still has a producer credit) and in his place sits Mark Wadlow, who also wrote the film's screenplay. However, despite the change in who's directing the picture, Kick-Ass 2 is often just much of the same as the inaugural Kick-Ass.
This has its weaknesses in that it doesn't really bring anything really fresh to the material, but the overall concept is still strong enough to carry the film along. There are, however, still a few alterations and the film's biggest shift in gear is dealing with Hit Girl, a character more nuanced and entertaining than the at-times rather bland Kick Ass as she deals with adolescence and cliques in high-school (given it's about how an extraordinary girl copes with the strict conformity of high-school, this could be a warm-up for Chloë Moretz's upcoming titular role in Carrie) and whilst this character arc is intriguing and Moretz's performance strong, some parts do falter, such as the introduction of a taser-like weapon hat induces bouts of vomiting and diarrhoea; a plot device you feel should be beneath the writers. The other character arc, that of Kick-Ass's, also works nicely and with some decent support especially from an all-too-seldom-seen Donald Faison (who seemingly disappeared after Scrubs) although Jim Carrey feels under-utilised and hangs very much in the shadow of Nicolas Cage's role in the first Kick-Ass.
The action scenes are initially exciting and at times very inventive, but also have a tendency to become too frantic and chaotic, whilst there's some surprisingly crude blue-screen. Kick-Ass 2 is not the perfect sequel, and there's a feeling a better film could've been made, but fans of the first film will at least be entertained by a still rather decent sequel.
Next time, Mark Wahlberg plays a Special Forces agent and Denzel Washington works for the DEA and both are being hunted down for money when a a drug cartel bust goes awry in 2 Guns.
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