mustinvestigate | so...Kick-Ass...

I didn't enjoy Kick-Ass nearly as much as I thought I would.

(Also, have there officially been enough disingenuous 'real people become costumed vigilantes and wackiness/serious business commences!' works for it to qualify as a separate genre from 'superheroes'? And does this genre have a less unwieldy title?)

I don't know what left the sourness for me...the sexual politics (there are no nerdgirls! and, Nice GuysTM, hot personality-less girls totally owe you a wild sexual relationship when you do nice things for them, even if you've been lying about who you are to get close to them!), or the 11-year-old serial killer...who I kind of liked, as a character and a concept...but it should at least be acknowledged that being fundamentally brainwashed into cold-blooded murder and kept from interacting with the outside, non-murdering, world from a very young age is a Very Bad Thing. Hell, Buffy was only killing demons, and she had entire seasons to mourn her lost potential as someone who didn't spend her nights killing other sentient beings!

And also the adolescent Kick-Ass had no issues with becoming a killer either. But he chose vigilantism for himself and was also sort of a dumbass, so that was more of an irritation with the writing than the gut-deep worry I felt for wee Hit Girl.

And yet I kinda think it's a little worth it if a pre-teen girl distains Bratz in favor of a butterfly knife.

I am conflicted.

And possibly just very old and not getting it.

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No, no, you're right to be suspicious! I enjoyed it in a shallow sort of way, but later, the more I thought about it the more it annoyed me. For instance, the protagonist's sudden switch from 'I'm an innocent civilian who just wants to help people' to 'I'm fine with murder'. I feel like I missed the part where that transition was satisfactorily explained (though apparently this is unique to the movie - the comic explores it at length).

The thing that bothers me most is the sudden switch from wry, deadpan realism to yeehaaaaw swords n' jet packs n' physically impossible fighting moves. I actually found the first ten minutes of the movie really interesting, then it was all a bit 'ho hum, another slickly shot Tarantino-esque thing'. I feel it copped out on it's own key premise!

Hit Girl was fun, but I wonder how much of it is just Mark Millar gleefully cackling over having an eleven year old say 'alright you cunts!'. Hurm. Actually re: Hit Girl and killing, I thought it was interesting that Big D mentioned he made training 'a game' for her. That came across a bit in the penultimate fight scene where strobe effects made it look like a first-person shooter, but I think we could have had more of that and it's frankly disturbing implications – like, what happens when she starts to realise what the heck she's really been doing. Maybe that's being saved for the next comic run.

Here's a thought for you to ponder: is Nick Cage drawing attention to his own inability to act in a slick meta way by having his dialogue be deliberately stilted, or is he doin' his very best actin', child?

How'd it get burned how'd it get burned howditgetburned?! In my early teens I thought he was one of the best actors ever...maybe I shouldn't admit that.

Yeah, the tone shift bugged me too - "we're so realistic, we have our hero get knifed and run over his first time out!" to "our ineffectual hero is suddenly Rambo who can use a jetpack and gatling guns (without going deaf or suffering the laws of physics) to kill many, many people!" It's got Transformer's syndrome - too unthinkingly juvenile for anyone over 14, but too gory and harsh for that demographic at the same time.

So the comic explores the shift with the male protagonist, but the young girl gets no inner life adjusting to the killing? Hurm.

What is it? What is it? No, not the bees! Not the bees! My eyes RAAARGGGGHHHH!!!

LOL, Nick Cage. I used to think he was the poor man's Jimmy Stewart, now he's just ridiculous.

Too unthinkingly juvenile for anyone over 14, but too gory and harsh for that demographic at the same time.

Mark Millar is fond of the old ultraviolence. Somebody over on Scans_Daily posted some scans of comic book Hit Girl, by the way, they're here if you're interested. I haven't read the comics myself, but I know the movie went into production way before the first arc was even finished - so the scriptwriters basically had a couple of issues and a plot overview to work from, I think.

Mind you, I'm not convinced the comic will be satisfactory in resolving these issues either. Oh, and I second your point above about how 'an 11-year-old girl being the toughest fighter in a room full of mooks instead of cowering in the corner [...] would be the coolest thing ever, in a better movie.' We need Cassandra Cain to be in the next Batman movie, that's what we need!

Thanks for the scans link - it seems to work a bit more in comics form, if only because the easy-slice body parts are so ridiculous the whole thing takes on a bit of ironic distance that live action couldn't pull off. Despite Hit Girl's creepy dull expression while hack and slicing, which is less/more disconcerting than the chipperness of the film version.

It still gets me in a way I'm sure was not intended, the father/daughter bonding via losing one's fear of being shot, actively molding a girl into someone strong above all else. It mightily chokes me up and I wish parents would impress on their daughters as much as their sons not to capitulate to threats of pain. But without so many gunshots, maybe. Or at least for media that's not super-problematic to cover the same ground.

Ah but you see, strength and bravery are manly virtues. Girls need to be taught to be precious princesses, or somesuch bullshit.

Argh. Yeah.

My old kickboxing instructor was the first person to ever approve of my big muscular body and push me to make it stronger, not smaller. I wish I could have told him how important he was to me - without, y'know, sounding like the bad kinda pervo :)

Re Kate Kane: ...and she's a lesbian? I'm so there.

I must confess to having a weakness for amazonian women. To me there's something so thrilling and goddamn awesome about women being unashamed of having height and strength and generally NOT being shelf-boobed tiny-waisted barbie dolls. This goes for RL and comic books.

I think you'll enjoy Kate Kane. She dodges the stereotypes of lipstick/butch by falling somewhere nebulously in between. Also, as a little awesome detail, I love that her Batwoman boots are flat. Seriously, no-one can be expected to fight crime in skyscraper heels.

Oh, also, this reminds me... if you're looking for a comic book father/daughter relationship that's functional and not creepy, but still with the instilling of honour and bravery etc, check out Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams III's 'Batwoman'. Kate Kane kicks all kinds of arse with the assistance of 'I disapprove of your vigilanteism, but obviously I'm still going to requisition lots of experimental black ops equipment for you' army dad.

I just spent a ridiculous stretch of time arguing with a Forbidden Planet greenhair that there was a new Batwoman in the last few years. Argh.

Note to self: look for a title before going to a store (it is the Detective Comics version, right?).

Yes, sorry, should have told you that! She is getting her own monthly very soon, but she's been moonlighting in Detective Comics (nos. 854-863 to be precise). The arc is also coming out in trade paperback soon as 'Batwoman: Elegy', so silly Forbidden Planet man should have known that. Harrumpf!

so...Kick-Ass...

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