Saturday, April 17, 2010
QUENTIN TARANTINO'S COMIC BOOK FILM: It's rare that a movie provokes as divergent a critical response as Kick-Ass has. Despite a 77% percent overall "fresh" rating over on Rotten Tomatoes, the negative reviews aren't just negative, but completely scathing, led by Roger Ebert's condemnation of the film as "morally reprehensible." Having seen the movie, I can see where Ebert comes from--one of the characters in particular is troubling--a young girl who's an unstoppable foul-mouthed vigilante, but I have trouble reconciling Ebert's condemnation of the film with his high praise for Kill Bill, the film's clearest spiritual forebear, with its stylized ultra-violence and candy-colored palate. Kick-Ass isn't for everyone (for certain), and it's certainly not for young children, but I think it's an interesting deconstruction of the comic mythos, and scores points for showing the impact of violence--this isn't a movie where people shrug off injuries, but we viscerally see and feel the pain, which, to me, is far less offensive than the cartoonish violence of so many action movies. If you're interested in the concept, it's worth seeing and making up your own mind.
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I was talking with a friend about the movie, and we decided we both had far more problems with the pacing of the movie than with the violence and vulgarity of Hit-Girl. It took a really long time to get rolling, I thought, though once it did, it was pretty entertaining. I don't even quite get it. I mean, yeah, she's a little girl, but that's the gimmick, and there's always SOME gimmick in these movies. Would it have been better if she were a cartoon? A little boy? Or is it only ok when it's Sylvester Stallone mowing down attackers?
ReplyDeleteI read a series of fantasy books a while back about a child being trained to be an assassin, and I remember thinking at the time that these books would never be made into a movie, since people really couldn't handle a murdering kid. Who knew I wasn't that far off?
However, my biggest complaint is with the dad who brought his toddler with him to the showing I saw yesterday. You, sir, are an abomination. I hope your kid keeps you up ALL WEEK with the screaming.
Matt, you might like the source material. It's a little bleaker, but quite good. (Same name, author is Mark Millar.)
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen it, and am not planning to, so the only thing I can offer is this review of the comic book: http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/04/16/kick-ass-in-60-seconds/.
ReplyDelete<span>I haven't seen it, and am not planning to, so the only thing I can offer is this review of the comic book: <span></span>http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/04/16/kick-ass-in-60-seconds/</span> (Not that I've read the comic book either.)/
ReplyDeleteAnd kind of off topic but not totally - the Los Angeles NBC news at 11 last night had a reporter who called the movie "morally apprehensible." That was where my palm hit my forehead and I then changed the channel.
ReplyDeleteSo she liked it! Or, at least understood it. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteLook, I don't know if it's especially reprehensible, but almost every Mark Milkar book I've read has had the moral complexity of a 12-year-old boy. He wrote Wanted, for crying out loud. (Notsble exception being his Red Son, a DC Elseworlds where Superman landed in the Ukraine instead of Kansas.)
ReplyDeleteI think Ebert ceased to be relevant a bit of a while ago, but at least he's consistent on the child exploitation issue - he didn't like that aspect of the "The Professional" (aka Leon) when he reviewed it 15 years ago.
ReplyDeleteI loved Kick-Ass (except for the pacing problems Becca mentioned) and I, well, let me just repeat an email I sent to a movie discussion list:
ReplyDeleteI thought there were parts of Kick-Ass that were very realistic - emotionally, the movie was dead on. That little girl loved her daddy.
But for me, the whole movie was so over the top in every other way. Not to get too artsy-fartsy on you here, but I LOVED the prominent featuring of the Andy Warhol art in D'Amica's office. I thought "YES." To me, Kick-Ass is taking so many things about modern pop culture and pushing, pushing, pushing it past where it's been before: smart-mouth kid (Mindy is Bart Simpson on STEROIDS), some of the action scenes (especially the ones in night vision) were straight-up first-person shooter video game, but with REAL consequences.
To me, what was most telling was the reaction of the audience I saw it with. It was full of college kids on dates, nerds who clearly knew the movie, and at least a few guys who had no idea what the movie was but thought, "Hey, it opens today and it's called "Kick Ass," let's go." At the most challenging parts of the movie, some folks laughed, some gasped, some seemed disgusted. Again, maybe giving the movie more credit than it deserves, but I thought it did that thing that really good art can do of challenging you and shocking you, but not just for the shock value.
That's WHY I like the movie so much - it was wild and surreal and out there, but grounded with an emotional realism that made it worthwhile. And it kicked ass.
Honestly, this movie worked more for me than so many of the recent dark, broody, angsty superhero movies (I'm looking at you, NOLAN). Because despite the over-the-top unrealistic violence and such, the characters were more well-rounded. These were kids and they laughed. When they were pleased with a kick ass move they'd just made, they smiled and were proud. I mean, if you took it on yourself to go be a superhero, wouldn't you be strutting after the first time you laid out a bad guy? And during one pivotal scene, both Dave's voiceover and Mindy's facial reactions were as real and honest and emotionally gripping as any of those artsy-fartsy superhero movies. A little bit more for me. I believed Dave's fear and anxiety and disappointment and exultation.
My reaction to Mindy and the violence:This girl is a sociopath of sorts. That's both scary and sad and exhilarating. Honestly, I was MORE comfortable with the ultraviolence of the character BECAUSE of her gender. I would've found a male character that way to be creepy and threatening. So, to me, there's something interesting there - because she's a girl, I think her killer ways are just soooo cute. At the risk of sounding overintellectual, I have to say that that's just f***ed up.SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER
- Highlight to read OR STOP READING NOW if the text isn't whited out for you -<span>
The scene where Mindy has a fistfight with the grown man and is near defeat? I was almost crying. Because I thought, "That's real. Daddy can show her how to use guns and knives all he wants, but when it comes to hand-to-hand combat with an adult male in good shape with martial arts training? She's in real trouble." And that vulnerability worked for me. I mean, I figured the movie had had too positive a reaction for the bad guys to win, </span><span>but still, you felt the real danger and you suddenly remembered it was a real little girl under the mask and cape.</span>
Hello, I do not agree with the previous commentator - not so simple
ReplyDeleteHe told me that when he thought Iwas ready he was going to bring one of his friends over and thatI was to service both of them at once. I just couldnt handle that kids energy.
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He told me that when he thought Iwas ready he was going to bring one of his friends over and thatI was to service both of them at once. I just couldnt handle that kids energy.