Film review: Kick-Ass 2 (5 out of 10)

Last week The Lone Ranger was all about Tonto and Kick Ass is really the story of Hit-Girl. It’s no great surprise in this case as Chloe Grace Moretz’s character dominated the first movie as soon as she made her dramatic entrance accompanied by expletives. And in the equally violent sequel she has the better action scenes, more interesting character development and, to be be blunt, is the better actor. Both films are based on the graphic novels by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr which are violent and dark. However, in this second film we are seemingly constantly being told that ‘this is real life, not a comic book’. And there’s the problem. The movie doesn’t know what it wants to be. We have some dark elements from the book but in one scene have a supposedly funny scene with projectile vomit and other bodily fluids that even the Inbetweeners film would leave alone. The plot follows shortly after the first film, with Dave Lizewski/Kick-Ass (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Mindy Macready/Hit-Girl at college. However, Hit-Girl can’t forget her past and Kick-Ass wants to get back out there to fight the baddies in his ‘super-hero’ role. The antics in the first film have inspired a bunch of strange people to don a mask and walks the streets righting wrongs in this sequel. One of these is Colonel Stars and Stripes with Jim Carrey playing a strange and very violent role. In the ‘super villain’ camp, Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) returns to avenge the death of his father (in the first film) but uses a new pseudonym which I can’t repeat here as it would set off every ‘foul language monitor’ in sight. The action sequences are good enough and Mindy Macready’s attempt to find a place in the real world is touching at times. However, the movie doesn’t really gel and perhaps it should have stayed safely within the pages of the comic book. Film details: Kick-Ass 2 (15) 103mins Director: Jeff Wadlow Starring: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jim Carrey, Christopher Mintz-Plasse Screening courtesy of Cineworld Crawley