Kick-Ass 2 had some great action scenes, some funny dialogue, and overall I thought it was…..

Meh.  Ya know.  Just alright.

Despite having a lot of things going for it, Kick-Ass 2 really slowed the entire movie down with a strange “Hit Girl Goes to High School” sub plot that only served as a cheap knock off of Mean Girls.  Despite Aaron Taylor Johnson (Kick-Ass) and Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Red Mist/The Motherfucker/Chris D’Amico) having top billing, their characters continually fell to the wayside of Hit Girl (Chloe Grace Moretz) and Mother Russia (Olga Kurkulina).  Speaking of Mother Russia, she stole the show.  She down right robbed it, making all the other characters look increasingly lame.

This scene stole the movie and never gave it back

A special head nod should be given to Jim Carrey as Colonel Stars & Stripes.  He played his usual comedic role down and instead embraced the character.

I don’t have much to say about this film other than it hit all the “right” notes, but didn’t push the limits of what it could do in any way, shape, or form.  The plot was predictable.  You never actually believed Hit Girl was done kicking ass (see what I did there…) and you never felt like the hero wouldn’t win.

There is a movie called Super with Rainn Wilson and Ellen Page that took the dark tone of the first Kick-Ass and grounded it more in reality, lending to its credibility, but taking away from its mass Hollywood appeal.  Kick-Ass 2 did the reverse, taking us farther away from reality and attempting to appeal to a broader audience, which in the end probably only hurt itself (although I have no doubt they will toss out another one of these movies in not too long).

I give Kick-Ass 2 a 7 out of 10 for just being decent, but nothing more.  For a movie marketed as darker and more realistic, Kick-Ass 2 didn’t deliver.

Johnny Townsend

Staff Writer

koala@ihogeek.com