The best movie I've seen this year

[andrewducker]

Went to see Kick-Ass last week, with meaningrequired, werejud, cairmen, Alex, Ian and Mike from Cambridge who was up visiting.

It was fantastic. It's smart enough to undermine the superhero genre while also revelling in it. It tells you how superhero stories work, brings you onside in finding them ridiculous and then does one so well that you get completely caught up in it.

Three quarters of it takes you through how messed up a person would have to be to be a superhero, the problems they'd have and the way it couldn't possibly work, and one quarter operatic, balletic action-fest that lead to everyone leaving the cinema on a complete high.

It managed to make me laugh. And make me cry. At the same time.

It comes out in America on the 16th. Go see it.

(Warning, movie contains scenes of violence. And swearing. If you don't like either of those things then this it not for you.)

Comments

Re: SPOILERS ALERT

[likeneontubing.livejournal.com]

And the flying scene at the end - was just bloody awful. I was actually staring in disbelief. The shark... it was jumped!

I pretty much agree with what you say. Hit Girl was by far the best.

Re: SPOILERS ALERT

[broin.livejournal.com]

Kinda put me in mind of the last 30 seconds of The Matrix. You were doing so well, and then... swoop!

Re: SPOILERS ALERT

[likeneontubing.livejournal.com]

I guess that's why I felt so cheated really - it was doing well up until that point.

Re: SPOILERS ALERT

[andrewducker]

That seems really odd to me. The point of The Matrix is that he learns to transcend the reality he has been given so that the rules of physics no longer apply to him. He can thus move at incredible speeds, is impervious to bullets, etc. Why be fine with that, but not with transcending gravity?

Re: SPOILERS ALERT

[broin.livejournal.com]

A few reasons, actually. Nothing to do with the physics or the possibility.

The effect was cheap and the CGI wasn't as good as the rest of the movie. His coat just didn't look like a real coat any more.

Big jumps, even REALLY big jumps, are more visually interesting (and in genre) than flying. cf Crouching Tiger, Jackie Chan, etc etc.

It was swooping for the sake of swooping. It's the end of the movie, here's the money shot. But it was a damb dribble, not an awesome explosion.

And RATM are boring. ;)

Re: SPOILERS ALERT

[andrewducker]

Well, I certainly agree with the last point!

I took it as the transformation of Mensch into Ubermensch, where the Son of Man (i.e. Anderson) turns on God Mode and Slips The Surly Bonds Of Earth. A jump, even a big jump, wouldn't have cut it for that.

But yes, it could have looked cooler.