Hopefully some of you have seen Kick-Ass (click for full review here) by now. As I said in my review:"Kick-Ass is simply perfection in what a comic book movie is suppose to be. It politely mocks the genre but knows what the audience came to see. Witty humor, POW! BAM! action and a new band of heroes that you won't ever forget. Kick-Ass sits on the throne of comic book movie royalty daring anybody to take away it's crown. Hit Girl says it best."
"OK cunts, let's see what you can do now"
But not all the critics have agreed with my 4 spinkick review. Currently Kick-Ass is at 77% Fresh at Rotten Tomatoes and a few notable critics like Roger Ebert have bashed it for glorifying Hit Girls violent and profane actions and words. Others think there is no satire in the entire film.
Of course there is SATIRE you dumb mofo's!
The satire is in the fact that a regular dude could become wildly popular in this Internets viral age. Where some people can get famous for whining in front of their web cam or doing some silly dance, the fact that footage of Kick-Ass doing something heroic and it being the trigger to his popularity and spawning of "other superheroes" is the satire of the social and internet age.
Anybody can get their 15, but Kick-Ass states: Can you get your 15 and do something positive with it?
That's the satire. That a kid with no superpowers becomes an icon for the viral age and annihilates "the evil in the city".
Sure it's pretty comic booky in its violence, but that's where the fun comes in.
Back to Hit Girl's violent poetry and profanity laced 'logue. These middle aged, web illiterate critics denounce Chloe Moretz's awesome performance and feel deep hatred towards Matthew Vaughn's direction. I respect Ebert and his opinion but I heard the same echoes from those critics from At The Movies.
So I put this question for ya.
What if Hit Girl was Hit Boy. Would you still feel the same way?
Would seeing a tweeny boy kill and curse make it ok? Is it because Mindy Macready and her father are a 1-2 punch of death fury that makes it uncomfortable? C'mon now, don't be fuckin hypocritical now you old geezers. Why can't we have girl power ala The Bride in Kill Bill?
We've had movies where tweeny girls have put in very adult situations (shit wasn't that Precious movie was fucked up in that way)
Yeah the movie has intense uber action scenes (rockin out to Joan Jett's Bad Reputation) but its the reverse hierarchy. Kick-Ass is the wimp, Hit Girl is the one man army. Remember, when Buffy the Vampire Slayer came along, Whedon reversed this dynamic and wanted to give us a positive girl power heroine.Sure, Hit Girl isn't in high school, but 11 yrs old or 10 (depending on the comic) but it's putting that idea in our head that anybody can be a superhero be it nerdy, comic book geeky kids or a tweeny pre-pubescent girl.
I guess the mentality of these old geezers is still the same as ever. Wake up guys. It's a whole new world and you're being left behind.
Watch Hit Girl curse and blow mafiosos away.
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OK, if you've seen the movie...what did you think? Was the movie awesome or average or horrible? Did you notice the satire as I did? What do you think Hit Girl and her character? Was her portrayal good, bad or ehhhh? Do you think seeing a 11 yr old girl assassinating mafiosos glorifies violence and how girls should act?
Leave a comment!
I definitely fell more firmly on the "meh" side. I felt caught between the film's desire to be grounded in real violence and teen angst and the more cliched action movie elements.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to love Hit Girl ... but just didn't buy her. When The Bride made a kill, there was always a psychological complexity. Whether deciding to kill a mother in front of her child or to kill her ex-lover, you could see in Thurman's performance that it wasn't without psychological impact. The Bride did what she had to do, but killing people violently deadened her soul a bit ... like Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven.
So, because the Kick-Ass storyline set me up to believe these were real kids with real feelings subject to somewhat real laws of physics, I felt disconnected from Hit Girl. I don't care that she's a killer. I think that's original and interesting. I just didn't see anything behind her eyes that would ground it in the real psychology of a girl who has been trained to kill. Her seeming superhero invincibility in the fight scenes re-engaged my suspended disbelief.
I guess it seemed like two different movies ... both of which could have been interesting, but it didn't gel for me in the end.
I guess that puts me on the web-illiterate old geezer side, then. :\
Not to be rude, but i think this movie does great in Europe and less great in America. This was one of the best maby the best movies after the Dark Knight and people where realy exciting about this movie.
ReplyDeleteEh, this movie RULED. I'd do a review but it'd be parroting all the other gazillion rave reviews..for the same reason...because it's not "meh" and those who don't like it clearly don't "get it" - and that's okay. They knew going in this movie wasn't for everyone.
ReplyDeleteAsk any fan of Kick-Ass if they totally LOVED On Golden Pond and they'll look at you like you're retarded...and tell you that movie sucked. No, it didn't suck. But Kick-Ass audience are not the same people as Ebert's ilk. And vice versa, so ANY review coming from anyone outside the target audience needs to be completely disregarded. Get reviews from the legit audience - and among those who really didn't care for it for whatever reason.
Some 60 something guy ragging on a cultural phenomenon such as Hit Girl and the whole raising of the bar for comic flicks to come is sort of like listening to Vaudvillian lovers ragging on the evil Elvis Presley...you think the teenieboppers gave a rat's ass what they thought?
Kick-Ass is awesome. And that's coming from a 46 y/o mother who took my 11 y/o son to Kick-Ass Apr 16 and we both loved this movie.
So "meh" backacha.
I loved the movie, incredible action-scenes, great somewhat original story, cool new heroes to root for. Filmmaking at its finest. I loved Hit Girl as well, she was incredibly cool, my favorite character in the film. I loved her attitude throughout, Chloe Moretz's performance was incredible. Although I do kind of agree with the poster above about her lack of feelings toward all the killing she's doing. But I don't think that's the movie they were trying to make.
ReplyDeleteWhat bothered me the most was that Hit Girl was more of a superhero than an ordinary kid. The movie seemed to break its own rules on that count, that this was supposed to be the real world, but obviously no 11 year old, or really anybody, could pull off the stuff that she was doing.
At the same time, it seemed to fit the tone of the film. Is that some of the satire you're talking about?