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So let’s get the really offensive stuff out of the way of this, before I actually bother giving my opinion on the movie. A little, 11-year-old girl, says the word “cunt”, is generally vulgar, and kills people almost with a sense of pleasure. If this concept bothers you on any level, despite the fact that it’s placed in a clearly fictional universe and she exhibits skills that 11 year old girls cannot naturally accrue in the short amount of time she’s supposed to be involved in her training, then you should not see this movie or even, really, continue reading this review because nothing good will come of it. Your opinion will not change based on what I’m saying and, as a comic book fan (and someone who read the mini series this is based on) my opinion may actually cause yours to worsen. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. The more I talk about it with people, the more critical I become of various aspects of it, but I still consider this one of the best adaptations of a mini series I’ve come across. It’s certainly better, in its transition than something like V for Vendetta although it’s not as good as Watchmen or The Dark Knight which isn’t actually based on a mini series.

If you’re curious about this movie, you should know that the previews are a little misleading. This is not, entirely, a fun happy action comic book movie that will make you feel good. For one thing, Mark Millar (who wrote the eight-issue series this is based on) does not write feel-good material. Looking at his past work, we have The Ultimates (1 and 2), Superman: Red Son, and a number of other books that generally leave you feeling bothered on some level. The Ultimate incarnation of Captain America, as presented by Millar, is an angry soldier who is the epitome of manly manhood, and that’s exactly what he wants it to be. Millar exists in a kind of universe where this violence is casual, almost, and it’s presented in a way that makes it enjoyable. The comics, as well as this movie (for the most part) don’t take themselves that seriously, and it’s something that seems to get lost in the observations and the reviews of materials from people not familiar. I understand I may come off as a little elitist, but I’ve been reading various reviews by people who are acting like a little girl swearing and killing people in an action movie is easily the worst thing to happen to modern media since Hitler. But it really isn’t. Comic books, as a whole, haven’t been for children since the 1970s, and it’s time people start remembering this fact.

But with all of that out, let’s talk about this movie.

Kick-Ass starts off by asking us the very simple question “Why has no one ever decided to be a superhero?” and answers it over the course of the movie in an increasingly absurd way as is Millar’s tendecy. We follow the named-after-a-real-life-dude Dave Lizewski as he ponders the reality of the question with his various friends in the middle of their comic book shop. Not that they own it. Dave and his friends are high school kids and comic book nerds. Every scene features them, as a whole, generally talking or reading a comic book. References to Spider-Man, Batman, and other characters are name-dropped in both these scenes and others involving people in a way that serves as both a way for comic book nerds like them to poke fun at themselves for having the equally inane discussions (There is a scene where we interrupt them having a discussion about a Batman/Joker fight involving things like force-fields) and to humor people who may not have had these kinds of talks in public areas. As the story progresses, we see Dave becoming increasingly agitated with the way his life is going– various muggings have become almost causal encounters.

In the end, Dave decides to dawn a suit he bought online and become a superhero of sorts. Or, rather, he tries. His first encounter leaves him stabbed by the muggers he was going after, and hit by a random driver who runs off to avoid anything. Things become interesting because he continues in an ignorant obsession, mirroring the compulsions of people like Peter Parker and other heroes who continue because they “have” to. Dave, filled to the brim with screws and plates and suffering nerve damage from his assaults, take this as a point of pride and continues on, utterly failing to properly grasp not only the scope of what he’s involved himself with, but also that he may be seen as some kind of twisted inspiration for other people.

While this is going on, the characters Hit Girl and Big Daddy are being formed. Their story is altered somewhat from that of the comic, here, the story is that he is an ex-cop, who is going after a drug lord because he is directly involved with the suicide of his wife. The crime lord also sent Big Daddy to prison. In the comic, he’s just an accountant. This secondary story to Dave’s is an unusual one because it presents a lot of the most disturbing aspects of the movie– specifically the ones I mentioned up in the previous paragraphs. Hit Girl, in her opening scene (her name is Mindy, in this) is shot in the chest by her father (Nicolas Cage) as a training exercise, and they go to the bowling alley afterward. It’s a casual, near gallows-humor moment that even in the comic left me amused. There’s an almost endearing quality in watching the little girl maintain a, well, little-kid fascination and joy out of something as morbid as the murder of various people like her father encourages her like she’s just getting a puppy or something. But, as I’ve said, it’s the atmosphere of the comic, and it’s a Mark Millar work. It’s just par for the course in this universe.

Meanwhile, in movie-land-main-story, Dave is now the gay BFF of the clear love interest in the movie. Gay, because rumors are starting that the reason he was naked in his accident was because he was gay or something like that. So the girl, who Dave was crushing on entirely too much, takes him as a friend and Dave attempts to use this to eventually get in her pants. Things start to branch away from the comic here, but I’ll save that for later.

The movie continues in a flurry of action scenes and people discussing the life and actions of comic books in an almost surreal manner, with the son of the drug lord dude becoming a superhero himself to initiate a team-up and get Kick-Ass taken out. All the while Big Daddy and Hit Girl are the ones actually engaging in all of the violence, killing people and so forth. Then, just before Big Daddy, Hit Girl, and Dave go to beat The Bad Guy, Dave confronts the girl, tells her he’s not gay and they start having a lot of sex which is totally how that works.

The end starts coming after this. Big Daddy is killed after being tortured on screen following his capture at the hands of Red Mist (the team-up kid) at an attempted unmasking of Kick-Ass. Hit Girl and Kick-Ass back to the their headquarters and weapon-up for The Last Fight. They go, and Hit Girl deals out a lot of punishment before getting the shit knocked out of her by the crime lord whose name isn’t important enough to remember. Dave shows up with a thing so far removed from the comic book ending that it’s almost ridiculous, but I loved it. In the end, Dave is still with the girl, Hit Girl is in his school, and they all lived happily ever after. Except for Red Mist who is gonna be the bad guy in the next movie because why not.

The movie is basically fight scenes. Outlandish, almost absurd, fight scenes. But that’s a Millar book so that’s what I went in expecting. Some of the changes that were made were changes I didn’t really like. I felt that the almost happy ending kind of defeated the overall down-note feel of the book: Dave not only doesn’t get the girl, but she hates him now, and Dave’s gruesome torture scenes from both the first and last issues of the book are removed for something a lot more subdued. I mean, Dave gets his nuts zapped with electricity through jumper cables. That’s just fucked up. Big Daddy actually being a cop was a touch that, while unsurprising, was something I didn’t really care for. However, it’s not really bad enough for me to complain. So he’s not a boring accountant, meh.

The last fight scene is so ridiculous that I’m not going to even begin to describe it, you should go just for that last scene. It’s ridiculous on every possible level, and is a lot more like Frank Miller than it is Mark Millar. It’s not how it ended in the comic, at all, but it was fantastic all the same and I really can’t find anything to actively complain about with it.

There weren’t a lot of changes made to the costumes. Big Daddy’s outfit was changed to a more armored, The Dark Knight-looking costume, and is actually referenced as looking like Batman a few times. The Red Mist goes from looking very generic to something like an emo kid with red everywhere, and it’s a touch that I think fits the character a little more. Kick-Ass’s costume is still just as bad as the comic, and Hit Girl’s isn’t very different.

On the whole, despite the major differences, it was still a great movie, and something I intend on actually buying once it comes out. It’s making me look forward to not only the eventual home release, but the both the comic book and movie sequels that are planned. I can’t wait to see just where they’re gonna take this universe that is being constructed. I just hope that the sequels don’t take it too far, or lose the kind of dark humor that makes me enjoy these.

If you aren’t too bothered by obnoxious levels of violence befalling little girls, and bad language coming out of their mouths, go see the movie. If you’re a fan of comic books, you need to see this movie. It’s probably nowhere near as good as Iron Man 2 is going to be, but that’s just something we have to deal with. And I figure neither of these movies are going to be as good as the Avengers movie.