Joshua Malbin

A few months ago I complained about how the Kick-Ass storyline turned out and worried about the movie getting screwed up by following the comic too closely. Tonight I went and saw it and it was surprisingly good, even though it’s one of the more faithful comic-book adaptations I’ve ever seen. It did a much better job than the comic of setting expectations early and letting us know exactly what kind of story we were in for. It also did a little bit more with the idea of trying to dress up and be heroic without superpowers.

The action choreography and direction were particularly strong. As one of the people I went with pointed out, the action speeds up and slows down, Matrix-style, in a way that’s deliberately reminiscent of the way comic book action moves across panels. We see blurs punctuated by frozen frames, and it works.

A few words of warning. First, it’s gory. (I overheard one moviegoer say on the way out of the theater: “That was more violent than Quentin Tarantino.”) Second, it’s just an action movie. Don’t go in there expecting anything more.

That said, pace K-sky, it doesn’t suck.

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