Today's Mini-Review: Kick-Ass 2

Kick-Ass 2: ****/*****, or 7/10

The wacky creations of Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. return to the big screen in this sequel to the 2010 hit film Kick-Ass. Again centered around the premise of everyday people (that is, if nerds are eligible for that title) donning silly outfits and going out on the streets at night to fight bad guys, only to have things go wholly awry, we find Dave 'Kick-Ass' Lizewski (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Mindy 'Hit-Girl' MacReady (Chloë Grace Moretz) a while after the events of the predecessor, as they struggle to decide whether they should continue where they left off or just settle for a normal boring life after all. While Dave is adamant of returning to the criminal infested back alleys to keep his fellow civilians safe from harm, Mindy is confronted by her custodian Marcus (Morris Chestnut) who keeps telling her she should stop such behavior in favour of resuming the normal childhood taken from her by her father, and go in search for her true self, and disregarding the foul mouthed little crimebuster her father transformed her in. She does just that and quickly gets drawn into the equally vicious unforgiving world of teenage high school girls (walking talking clichés, but none the less hilarious for it). Meanwhile, Kick-Ass meets a band of fellow vigilantes, named Justice Forever, led by the seemingly mentally derailed born-again Christian Colonel Stars and Stripes (Jim Carrey; his presence was heavily marketed for this film, but he's only in it for a screen time of less than ten minutes), with which he readily signs up. Trouble is brewing though, as his archnemesis-to-be, the treacherous vigilante formerly known as Red Mist (Christoper Mintz-Plasse), is hellbent on revenge for the death of his father – whom Kick-Ass shot out of a skyscraper window with a bazooka – and is determined to become the world's first true supervillain, for which he gathers an army of evil henchmen (dubiously called the Toxic Mega-Cunts) and assumes the outrageous code name The Motherf*cker. With tensions mounting as the new ultimate bad guy hunts down the members of Justice Forever in search of his benevolent counterpart to exact his revenge on, things can only come down to a climactic showdown of epically violent proportions. The main question is: will Hit-Girl find her true nature in time to come to the good guys' aid?

Though the novelty of the concept of “ordinary” folks wearing ridiculous costumes and getting into more trouble than they anticipated has worn off since the first Kick-Ass was released, it's gratifying seeing our favorite take on the subject receiving a follow-up. Nevertheless, Kick-Ass 2 doesn't kick Kick-Ass' ass. Though still delivering a plethora of good gags and witty in-jokes, the emphasis on overly gratuitous violence and heavy swearing tends to rule the plot just a bit too much at times, being rude just for rudeness' sake, while most of the action scenes feel repetitive as they feature mostly costumed weirdos beating each other up with clubs, knives and the occasional guns instead of opting for more original scenarios like the previous installment did. As is the case with most sequels, this one just gives us more of the same without feeling the need to properly expand the world in question too much for fear of leaving its comfort zone. That said, it cannot be denied there's a heart and soul to Kick-Ass 2, and as was the case with the previous film, it's mostly centered around Hit-Girl. Whereas Kick-Ass' most endearing (and funniest) moments revolved around Hit-Girl and her father Big Daddy (you'd never think you would miss Nicolas Cage!), the same is true for Kick-Ass 2 where Hit-Girl's plot line tends to steal the show as she's off on her own adventure surviving the torments of being an unpopular teen girl in a world ruled by major bitches. And though Hit-Girl was always the most awesome ingredient of the franchise, it's amazing to see Mindy by herself works just as well without her alter ego, which makes us go without the purple suit for most of the film without missing it that much. As for girl power, we have the bad-ass new character of the hulking Mother Russia (bodybuilder and first time actress Olga Kurkulina) to do some serious damage to other people in the same style whilst in the employ of The Motherf*cker. In this regard, she's rather an exception, as almost all other evil henchmen, as well as the majority of Kick-Ass' new fellow protectors, get very little development. There's so many zany new characters with similarly goofy outfits that we can only hope for a neat DVD bonus feature to explore them all. Overall, Kick-Ass 2 gives us exactly what we were kinda expecting, an explosive and hilarious sequel to its predecessor that does an adequate job further delving into the crazy nature of vigilantism and fleshing out the characters of our beloved Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl a bit more, but lacks the smarts and charms that characterized the first film and feels otherwise rather a repetition of moves. It must be stated though, you haven't lived until you've seen Mindy melt over a Union J video clip. And as a bonus you get Jorah Mormont Iain Glen doing a very creepy New Jersey mob accent.