Kick-Ass lacks kick

As the tag line says, “with no power comes no responsibility.” It should also read “and nothing interesting happening either.”

Kick-Ass is the kind of movie that probably looked great on paper, especially in comic books. The series by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. was only introduced two years ago but since every cartoon or graphic novel gets a film treatment sooner or later, there was no real reason to wait before getting this one to the silver screen. Except, of course, for the reason that age would have improved this otherwise immature work.

The story revolves around Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson), an uninteresting high school student in New York, who takes a fancy to the notion that superheroes don’t need special talents or cool tools. They just need the will to fight crime with optimism and naïvetĂ©. And a costume helps too.

With a specially ordered green wetsuit, he becomes the titular character, kind of a scrawny, gawky, younger Bruce Wayne but with no gadgets and zero martial arts training. He’s only able to defend truth, liberty and justice with his gumption and a pair of batons strapped to his back. It soon becomes apparent more artillery is needed.

As luck would have it, he becomes familiar with a rogue pair of do-gooders under the guise of Hit Girl (Chlöe Moretz) and Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage), a father-daughter team with a budget and arsenal that more than makes up for what Kick-Ass lacks. Big Daddy is a cross between the coolest father and the most irresponsible parent as he guides 11-year-old Hit Girl through his version of a martial academy. Together, the three set their sights on the drug lord Frank D’Amico played by Mark Strong who is once again confusing me into thinking that he is Andy Garcia’s doppelganger just like he did in last year’s Sherlock Holmes. D’Amico’s son Chris (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) is desperate to learn the business so he becomes the Red Mist in an effort to interfere and sabotage the trio’s plans.

As much as I enjoyed the trailer and the thought of this motley crew of misfits, there really was no point to watching the show. I was as bored with this as I was with The Spirit. With any comic book film I expect a certain amount of camp and there just wasn’t enough going on here. I resist the temptation to comment how Cage takes acting assignments as readily and foolishly as Christopher Walken. Cage, after all, has to pay the Internal Revenue Service somehow but at what price? Maybe he should take on the next Nicholas Sparks movie or try to win another Oscar.

Sadly, it was all as compelling as Fantastic Four and about as enriching. Director Matthew Vaughn was also at the helm for the graphic novel translation of Stardust. Strangely, something lively got lost in the translation from paper to these moving pictures.