Before I start, I'd like to say I really love the first Kick-Ass movie. I have a crush on Aaron Taylor-Johnson. And I own the first volume of the Kick-Ass graphic novel but have yet to read it. Oh, and I really love Hit-Girl. That being said, this movie was big let down. A fun let down, but still a big ole let down nonetheless. Minor review spoilers ahead...
Things seemed to get started way too quickly. Christopher Mintz-Plasse's annoying character of Red Mist/Chris D'Amico/The Motherfucker was too crazy compared to how he was in the first movie. In the first one, he wanted to be a superhero. In this one, he seems crazed bout Kick-Ass (there sure are a lot of hyphenated names in this review) killing his crazy mob boss father with a bazooka even though his crazy mob boss father was, well, a crazy mob boss who killed a shit ton of people. It seemed like too much of a leap. And he became "The Motherfucker" in about the first 5 seconds of seeing him in this movie. Also, his mother needed more scenes before her, ahem, exit. I needed something more there. Also, what really was the point of John Leguizamo's character? But, I guess "I needed something more" would be how I felt overall about this movie.
Hit-Girl "retires" from being a superhero due to her new adopted father not wanting her to get into trouble (which makes sense). We see her trying to lead a normal life and be a regular teen girl. These are some of the best scenes of the movie. We find out she's never been kissed. She makes friends with some terrible popular girls who are cartoon character versions of the girls from Mean Girls. They introduce Hit-Girl to a One Direction-esque boy band. It's all rather amusing. They definitely could have done more with this whole plot line. But, I did really enjoy the ending of that plot line. I love a good comeuppance. Hit-Girl, much like in the first movie, was the strongest character.
Kick-Ass himself doesn't really have much of a story in this movie. His storyline is that he joins a group of superheroes. Oh, and he wants Hit-Girl to unretire. He starts dating Night-Bitch, one of the heroes on the team he joined but...there's no real chemistry or story there. They just start sleeping together after making eyes at each other once or twice. The superhero team is a great cast of underused characters. There was so much oppurnity there. But, sigh. I loved the older couple fighting crime together in poorly put together costumes. I loved the gay guy who refused to wear a mask because it was like, "hiding in the closet." But, those characters all had about 5 lines. Oh, and there's Jim Carrey's character who did nothing but serve the purpose of being "the adult."
This movie seemed like a Scary Movie version of the first Kick-Ass. I felt the first movie had such over the top violence to make everything seem more realistic...in this movie, the over the top violence made everything seem, well, too over the top. I needed more from Kick-Ass, since he was the main character. I wanted more out of his relationships. I wanted more out of the superhero team. I wanted more scenes of him and Hit-Girl. I WANTED MORE. But, to be fair, I very much enjoyed the big battle at the end. It was a lot of fun and fairly gratifying. Hit-Girl was a total badass and Kick-Ass was, uh, kick ass. So, while I didn't hate this movie, I was super dissapointed in it.
