# Kick-Ass sucked...and apparently I'm the only one who feels this way? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 10, 2010, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kick-ass-sucked-and-apparently-im-the-only-one-who-feels-this-way/538876 "2010-05-10T04:29:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2010, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kick-ass-sucked-and-apparently-im-the-only-one-who-feels-this-way/538876/21 "2010-05-10T16:41:37Z")
I thought it was best movie I’ve seen this year. Obviously I’m not going to argue anybody into liking it, but anyone who didn’t like it is wrong. Yo, **Melon**. It’s nothing like _Sky High_. I thought it would be that way too. It’s not cheesy in the slightest, and it’s in no way a kid’s movie. I went expecting _not_ to like it, and I went having intensely disliked that girl who plays Hit-Girl in _(500) days of Summer_. I ended up thinking it was a blast and thinking that kid _owned_ it. As has been mentioned, it’s more akin to a Tarantino movie in tone than to a superhero movie. It’s got that kind of headlong, unpredictable, no-net pacing, ironic comic sensibilities and exhilarating violence you see in _Pulp Fiction_ and _Kill Bill_. It’s got an elemnt of transgression and boundary crossing that sets it apart. The action is alo very well choreographed and inventive. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2010, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kick-ass-sucked-and-apparently-im-the-only-one-who-feels-this-way/538876/22 "2010-05-10T16:44:18Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > I don’t know. But I can’t help but think of _Sky High_ when I see trailers for this movie. The trailers are very misleading in this case. ---
**Author:** ![Elysium](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3be4f8/32.png) [@Elysium](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elysium)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2010, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kick-ass-sucked-and-apparently-im-the-only-one-who-feels-this-way/538876/23 "2010-05-10T16:46:05Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > Here’s what I wrote in another thread: > \* > I thought it was pretty good-- and I’m going to sound like such a fucking insufferable nerd here-- but I honestly feel like the comic was better. > > It set the Red Mist storyline up so that it truly was a shocking reveal, rather than basically letting you know from the get-go what was up with that. > > It made the much more realistic decision of having the girl blow off Dave when she found out he wasn’t gay, thus saving us from that awful shoe-horned “love story.” > > It had a consistent tone and vision, and didn’t ramble as much. The movie never figured out if it was a comedy, a drama, a love story, a teen movie, a superhero flick, an action movie, etc etc. > > The movie was good, but when I heard that the director’s cut was going to be 18-minutes longer I thought: hmmm, if I was the director, the Director’s Cut would be 18 minutes _ **shorter** _. > > I found it annoying how [Atomic Comics] bought their way so prominently into the movie. > > I agree that Chloe Moretz lit up the screen, though, and that’s a HUGE compliment coming from me, because 99% of child actor performances annoy the shit out of me.\* > > Edit: And I should add: the comic didn’t have the jet-pack, which took it way too far into comic book fantasy territory, IMO, for a concept that was supposed to be “realistic” (even after making generous allowances for realism up to that point.) I think you read my mind for this post! I enjoyed the comic, but the changes made to the story for the film completely screwed the theme and impact of the whole story. I understand that the film script and the comic were being finished at the same time, so that’s why the endings differ, but Millar is a much better writer than whoever finished the story for the movie. The jet pack was totally ludicrous and I really preferred Big Daddy’s treatment in the comic. It really made what happened seemed pathetically sick, at the end. Also, Hit Girl actually showed a lot more vulnerability in the comic as well, at the end, and I think the movie suffered for making her TOO bad-ass. It was fun and an entertaining adaptation, but really not as strong as the comic at all. ---
**Author:** ![Valgard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2010, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kick-ass-sucked-and-apparently-im-the-only-one-who-feels-this-way/538876/24 "2010-05-10T17:06:20Z")
I saw it Saturday night and had a blast. Never read the comic and I didn’t have any preconceived notions going in. Silly, fun, violent, held together well. I can certainly see why it wouldn’t be everybody’s cup of tea. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2010, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kick-ass-sucked-and-apparently-im-the-only-one-who-feels-this-way/538876/25 "2010-05-10T17:10:54Z")
> [@OpalCat](#): > > We immediately said “that had a very Kill Bill feel to it” when we walked out. I thought the schtick in Kill Bill (I and II) got old, but I still liked those movies better than this one. So you _do_ buy the comparison, but think that this movie fares poorly in the comparison. Interesting! Why is this one not good like Kill Bill? ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2010, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kick-ass-sucked-and-apparently-im-the-only-one-who-feels-this-way/538876/26 "2010-05-10T17:19:51Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > the rocket belt that didn’t flip over once the Gatling guns started firing. Yeah, it would have been a better idea to use something with little recoil, like the utterly awesome AA-12 - [shown here being fired by a 5 foot tall, 98 lb woman](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhstuvzMiB0#t=2m24s). ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2010, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kick-ass-sucked-and-apparently-im-the-only-one-who-feels-this-way/538876/27 "2010-05-10T17:24:44Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > I haven’t seen it, but I think it looks dumb. Reminds me too much of _Sky High_ Sky High : Kick-Ass :: Mary Poppins : Reservoir Dogs. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2010, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kick-ass-sucked-and-apparently-im-the-only-one-who-feels-this-way/538876/28 "2010-05-10T17:24:45Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > So you _do_ buy the comparison, but think that this movie fares poorly in the comparison. Interesting! > > Why is this one not good like Kill Bill? Well you twisted my words a little there. I didn’t say that Kill Bill was good, I just said I liked it better than Kick-Ass. The comparison is the over the top violence, the no-holds-barred on killing people, etc. which I felt they both had. I found the Kill Bill movies more watchable because they felt like outlandish kung-fu movies where the rules of reality as we know them did not apply. Kick-Ass did not set itself up that way, and so all the over-the-top stuff felt over-the-top. I didn’t believe in it or in the characters. Additionally, I found the fight scenes tedious. They went on too long and didn’t have enough interest factor. I can only watch people flipping around stabbity-stabbing or shooting for a minute or two before I’m yawning and saying “come on, move the plot along already.” Also, the reality stretching was really poorly done in some cases, like the jet pack that had zero action/reaction with the guns. Also, the romance was stupid and poorly shoe-horned in, to use the phrase I’ve seen used appropriately already a number of times. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2010, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kick-ass-sucked-and-apparently-im-the-only-one-who-feels-this-way/538876/29 "2010-05-10T18:23:16Z")
The Big Daddy/Hit-Girl stuff was not supposed to be realistic. They were supposed to be an injection of comic book characters into real universe. The action was highly inventive and not repetitive at all. The romance was superfluous and didn’t work, that is true. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2010, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kick-ass-sucked-and-apparently-im-the-only-one-who-feels-this-way/538876/30 "2010-05-10T18:26:26Z")
Regarding the jetpack, it did have rockets firing out the back (as well as down) while the guns were shooting. Couldn’t the forces balance out? ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2010, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kick-ass-sucked-and-apparently-im-the-only-one-who-feels-this-way/538876/31 "2010-05-10T19:07:26Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > The Big Daddy/Hit-Girl stuff was not supposed to be realistic. They were supposed to be an injection of comic book characters into real universe. > > The action was highly inventive and not repetitive at all. > > The romance was superfluous and didn’t work, that is true. And it didn’t work for me. Perhaps for you, but for me it got old quickly. Glad we agree on that point. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2010, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kick-ass-sucked-and-apparently-im-the-only-one-who-feels-this-way/538876/32 "2010-05-10T19:49:53Z")
I thought it was middling. I haven’t read the limited series, but looking it up afterward, it’s a lot more what I was hoping for and expected. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2010, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kick-ass-sucked-and-apparently-im-the-only-one-who-feels-this-way/538876/33 "2010-05-10T19:54:37Z")
> [@HelloNinja](#): > > Regarding the jetpack, it did have rockets firing out the back (as well as down) while the guns were shooting. Couldn’t the forces balance out? If you could fly around New York with a jetpack for 300 grand, there’d be several thousand people doing it. ---
**Author:** ![clarkstar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/439d5e/32.png) [@clarkstar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clarkstar)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2010, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kick-ass-sucked-and-apparently-im-the-only-one-who-feels-this-way/538876/34 "2010-05-10T20:59:32Z")
i liked it. wasn’t great, but sort of cute. it did remind me of kill bill with all the stabbing etc. i was stunned when kick-ass got stabbed in his first encounter ---
**Author:** ![quixotic78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/3ab097/32.png) [@quixotic78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quixotic78)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2010, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kick-ass-sucked-and-apparently-im-the-only-one-who-feels-this-way/538876/35 "2010-05-10T22:26:22Z")
Thanks for starting this thread, **Opal** , because I didn’t want to piss on the hit parade in the other thread. I thought _Kick-Ass_ was poor to mediocre, and since I know you’re all dying to know why, here are some of the reasons why: [ul] [li]Part of this is because I saw another comic book movie the day before (_The Losers_), so it was additive, but – what the hell is it with unsubtle villains in comic book movies? Seriously, the only thing missing was a maniacal cackle from Frank D’Amico. That crap doesn’t work for me.[/li][li]It was about 20-30 minutes too long. Maybe one too many iterations of “I’m going to go kick ass/No I’m not/Yes I am/No I’m not.”[/li][li]The shoehorned romance has been mentioned many times, but I’ll throw a twist – the ridiculous “Oh, so-and-so is gay, so I’ll get 95% naked in front of so-and-so” thread. Has a “gay” friend ever rubbed fake tan on a nude girl, in the history of the universe? No. It has never happened. Just silly.[/li][li]You could take any of the most brutal soldiers in human history, put him at the end of a hallway facing 15 guys armed with semiautomatic weapons, run the simulation a million times, and the guy would die a million times. And yet an 11-year old can not only run the gauntlet, can not only survive unscathed, but can manage to kill all 15 guys in the process? That doesn’t require a suspension of disbelief; it requires drawing-and-quartering disbelief. _Especially_ when the sort-of point of the whole movie was that there are no superheroes.[/li][li]I don’t get the praise for Hit Girl. I had trouble understanding about half of what she said – but I’m willing to chalk that up to poor hearing – but it seems that any decent 11-year old actress could have done the exact same thing with that role.[/li][li]Too much stuff done with Hit Girl just for shock value. I’ll let the slicey-dicey stuff slide, because that was cool, but what was with “Hey cunts” or the cocky-Batman symbol? It’s not that I care about profanity; it’s just that it was wholly superfluous. She’s home-schooled and, we’re led to believe, pretty isolated, so her only human contact is her father, and he wasn’t profane, as far as I can recall. If he swore like a sailor, it’d make sense, but absent that, the line scans as a screenwriter saying, “ZOMG people will SHIT when they hear this!”[/li][li]Was there any point to the black cop, besides giving Hit Girl a place to land after Nic Cage died? Come to think of it, why was the cop on the take (Gigante?) so feared? He didn’t do dick.[/li][li]Most annoying to me – why did Red Mist fight Kick Ass in the end? The last time Red Mist saw Kick Ass, he was yelling “I’m sorry, he’s with me, leave him alone!” and then 15 minutes later they’re kung fu fighting? I did a literal double-take, thinking I had missed a scene. Can someone explain it to me? Even if it’s something like he wants to man up and impress Daddy, the least they could have done is some quick scene with RM saying to KA, “I’m sorry, you seem cool, but I’m a bad guy now.”[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kick-ass-sucked-and-apparently-im-the-only-one-who-feels-this-way/538876/36 "2010-05-11T02:39:03Z")
Yeah I pretty much agree with all of those points. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kick-ass-sucked-and-apparently-im-the-only-one-who-feels-this-way/538876/37 "2010-05-14T19:01:49Z")
> [@quixotic78](#): > > You could take any of the most brutal soldiers in human history, put him at the end of a hallway facing 15 guys armed with semiautomatic weapons, run the simulation a million times, and the guy would die a million times. And yet an 11-year old can not only run the gauntlet, can not only survive unscathed, but can manage to kill all 15 guys in the process? That doesn’t require a suspension of disbelief; it requires drawing-and-quartering disbelief. _Especially_ when the sort-of point of the whole movie was that there are no superheroes. Thanks, you made the point I was trying to make better than I did. I enjoy over-the-top fight scenes in comic book fantasy movies (although an 11 year old girl is really pushing it, unless she has superhuman powers) but _Kick-Ass_ is supposed to take place in this world, the world we live in. And in this world, Hit girl can’t exist. She completely destroys the whole “What if somebody really did start dressing up and fighting crime?” theme of the movie. ---
**Author:** ![lindsaybluth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90db22/32.png) [@lindsaybluth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lindsaybluth)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kick-ass-sucked-and-apparently-im-the-only-one-who-feels-this-way/538876/38 "2010-05-14T21:33:18Z")
I actually loathed Kill Bill - made it only perhaps 20-30 minutes into the first and second one. I really enjoyed Kick Ass - but I was prepared for it to be pretty bad and awkward. I loooooooathed the main character - whatever his name is, he’s so godawful ugly, awkward, and such a hideous actor that I hope he’ll never be in anything again. Christopher Mintz-Place, aka Red Mist, really built upon his performance in Superbad. He’s a good looking nerd who can pass for a high schooler - I hope to see a lot more of him in the future. I should mention that how much I pay for movies directly influences how much I enjoy them - we have a $1 theater that shows 6+ week old releases, so if I don’t like something or if I’m “meh” on it, I don’t have any “I"ll never get that time back”. As for new movies, the big box theater is $5 Monday-Thursday all day and night, so again, for $5, I don’t mind much if it’s not good, and I’ll walk out if it’s truly bad. I’d feel a lot more remorse if the SO and I spent $20 on tickets. We never buy concessions. ---
**Author:** ![shy\_guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a6a055/32.png) [@shy\_guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shy_guy)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2010, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kick-ass-sucked-and-apparently-im-the-only-one-who-feels-this-way/538876/39 "2010-05-15T02:17:12Z")
> [@lindsaybluth](#): > > I really enjoyed Kick Ass - but I was prepared for it to be pretty bad and awkward. I loooooooathed the main character - whatever his name is, he’s so godawful ugly, awkward, and such a hideous actor that I hope he’ll never be in anything again. I haven’t seen the movie yet (read the comic; like it, but not enough to pay to see the movie in the theater), but it is truly a feat if the movie managed to make Aaron Johnson unattractive. The man is [physically](http://www.flickr.com/photos/kaizfeng/2934735322/) [perfect](http://www.xtra.ca/blog/vancouver/image.axd?picture=aaron-aaron-johnson-3858292-376-509.jpg). In fact he was my first red flag in regard to the movie; the comic book Kick-Ass is truly unattractive; a male model would not have been my first choice. ---
**Author:** ![lindsaybluth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90db22/32.png) [@lindsaybluth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lindsaybluth)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2010, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kick-ass-sucked-and-apparently-im-the-only-one-who-feels-this-way/538876/40 "2010-05-15T03:10:43Z")
Wow. They really made him look uuuuuugly in the movie - and either those muscles aren’t real or he stopped working out for the movie, cause he’s damn skinny and pale in it. Plus if you don’t shower and have greasy skin and weird peach fuzz, I guess everyone is taken down a notch. Also, WTF is with him marrying a 43 year old woman!? And she’s knocked up! There’s more of an age difference between them than his ACTUAL age! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kick-ass-sucked-and-apparently-im-the-only-one-who-feels-this-way/538876.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kick-ass-sucked-and-apparently-im-the-only-one-who-feels-this-way/538876.md?page=3)