The best movie I've seen this year
Apr. 11th, 2010 11:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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.)
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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.)
no subject
Date: 2010-04-11 10:59 am (UTC)Fuck it - I am going to track this man down and sit and bitch with him about films. I am too damn critical it seems!
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Date: 2010-04-11 11:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-11 11:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-11 12:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-11 12:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-11 09:49 pm (UTC)SPOILERS ALERT
Date: 2010-04-11 09:49 pm (UTC)Overall, it was a decent-ish film, but it wasn't the bees knees it's being made out to be I feel. The ending was so utterly pish - I feel it jumped the shark a bit there. How bout you?
SPOILERS END
Re: SPOILERS ALERT
Date: 2010-04-12 08:01 am (UTC)Re: SPOILERS ALERT
Date: 2010-04-12 08:19 am (UTC)Re: SPOILERS ALERT
Date: 2010-04-13 12:40 pm (UTC)Re: SPOILERS ALERT
Date: 2010-04-13 12:44 pm (UTC)Re: SPOILERS ALERT
Date: 2010-04-13 12:45 pm (UTC)Re: SPOILERS ALERT
Date: 2010-04-13 12:40 pm (UTC)Re: SPOILERS ALERT
Date: 2010-04-12 08:20 am (UTC)If you mean the closing statement by Red Mist, then yes :->
Re: SPOILERS ALERT
Date: 2010-04-13 12:41 pm (UTC)Re: SPOILERS ALERT
Date: 2010-04-13 12:44 pm (UTC)Re: SPOILERS ALERT
Date: 2010-04-13 12:45 pm (UTC)Re: SPOILERS ALERT
Date: 2010-04-12 08:27 am (UTC)BUT, it did jump the shark a bit, and felt far more like the superhero movie it purported not to be. If the pack+guns had seemed more realistic, I'd have bought it. But the whole movie stepped into a different universe towards the end.
Re: SPOILERS ALERT
Date: 2010-04-12 08:31 am (UTC)Re: SPOILERS ALERT
Date: 2010-04-12 08:34 am (UTC)Re: SPOILERS ALERT
Date: 2010-04-12 08:34 am (UTC)Re: SPOILERS ALERT
Date: 2010-04-12 08:37 am (UTC)Re: SPOILERS ALERT
Date: 2010-04-12 09:06 am (UTC)Re: SPOILERS ALERT
Date: 2010-04-13 12:43 pm (UTC)In short - one that doesn't jump the shark!
Re: SPOILERS ALERT
Date: 2010-04-12 09:43 am (UTC)This was the problem I had with the whole film, not just the ending. The Dave stuff is (mostly) a nice subversion of the idea of superheros but the Hit Girl stuff is straight superhero movie. This is what I meant about being unable to overcome its source material; individually, I liked both halves but it can't quite integrate them.
Re: SPOILERS ALERT
Date: 2010-04-13 12:45 pm (UTC)How might you have handled that? What's your, uh, Ultimate Kick Ass? =)
Re: SPOILERS ALERT
Date: 2010-04-13 04:35 pm (UTC)Re: SPOILERS ALERT
Date: 2010-04-13 12:42 pm (UTC)I pretty much agree with what you say. Hit Girl was by far the best.
Re: SPOILERS ALERT
Date: 2010-04-13 12:45 pm (UTC)Re: SPOILERS ALERT
Date: 2010-04-13 12:46 pm (UTC)Re: SPOILERS ALERT
Date: 2010-04-13 12:48 pm (UTC)Re: SPOILERS ALERT
Date: 2010-04-13 01:11 pm (UTC)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
Date: 2010-04-13 02:08 pm (UTC)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.