By Christopher Kelly
McClatchy Newspapers
Mindy Macready (Chloe Moretz) is a pint-sized, foul-mouthed preteen, schooled in the art of weaponry by her vengeance-obsessed father, Damon (Nicolas Cage). Just for practice, Dad sometimes has her wear a protective vest and shoots at her, so she’ll know what it feels like to take a bullet.
Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) is a scrawny, hapless high-schooler, suspected of being gay by the girl he most desires. Despite no discernible physical agility or superhero skill, he dons a homemade bright green and yellow costume and decides to go into the crime-fighting business.
The joke of “Kick-Ass,” directed with a mixture of good cheer and go-for-broke tastelessness by Matthew Vaughn (“Layer Cake,” “Stardust”), is that these two pipsqueaks will eventually become “Hit-Girl” and “Kick-Ass,” the salvation of a drug- and violence-plagued New York City. Based on a comic-book series by Mark Millar (the screenplay adaptation is by Vaughn and Jane Goldman), this movie at once mocks the earnest premise of most superhero pictures — the wide-eyed, lushly romanticized creation myths of “Spider-Man,” “X-Men” and “Batman Begins” — and exults in that very same premise.
It’s called getting your cake and eating it, too, and for the most part “Kick-Ass” is able to pull it off.
The plot, such as it is, has something to do with a gangster (Mark Strong) who operates a powerful drug-smuggling ring. His young son, Chris (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), a classmate of Dave’s, yearns to prove himself a worthy inheritor of the family business. Dave, meanwhile, just wants to win the attention of a pretty girl named Katie (Lyndsy Fonseca). Cage’s Damon — who later transforms into his own superhero, named Big Daddy — is a former cop who holds a longstanding grudge against the gangster.
All of these players’ paths eventually cross, in a manner both dramatically satisfying and completely forgettable. Like most films making a bid to become a billion-dollar franchise, “Kick-Ass” has too many characters and too many plot threads. If you’re not predisposed to this brand of fanboyish, backstory-clogged mayhem, you’ll likely find yourself very bored.
But Vaughn know he’s not making high art — just breezy, self-referential fun. He fills the movie with as many gunfights, kung-fu battles and fiery explosions as he can muster. He allows Cage to chew the scenery with perverse abandon (even by the scenery-chewing standards of Cage). When all else fails, he resorts to the cheap but admittedly funny effect of having the blonde-haired, angelic-looking Moretz let loose with a stream of profanity and bloodshed. The movie’s offbeat color scheme — garish purples, greens and burnt oranges instead of the old-fashioned, all-American reds, whites and blues of most superhero pictures — further adds to the appealing, vaguely hipster-ish vibe.
Does the movie leave you breathless with anticipation for a series of sequels? Not entirely. But Vaughn earns points for allowing his three young leads — Moretz, Johnson and Mintz-Plasse — the chance to create memorably oddball characters, instead of completely swamping them in CGI. Moretz, especially, is a hoot, provided you aren’t offended by the idea of preteens wielding guns.
Given a little more on-screen time to shine in future installments, they might even give the series what it’s missing thus far: a bit more heart and a lot more purpose.
‘KICK-ASS’
* Rating: R for graphic violence, strong language, sexual content, nudity.
* Running time: 1 hour, 57 minutes.