To watch online today: This R-rated comic adaptation is much better than its reputation – super bloody, totally crazy and with a lot of heart – Film News

This is one of the best comic book adaptations that cinema has ever produced, and its lesser-known sequel is also recommended.

Matthew Vaughn has become an expert in the comic book adaptation genre, having directed the Marvel blockbuster X-Men: First Class and the Kingsman franchise. However, he handed over the direction of the Kick Ass sequel, Kick-Ass 2, to Jeff Wadlow in 2013, which left many fans of the first part skeptical before and after its theatrical release. The film is available for purchase and rent on Prime Video and Apple TV.

It’s especially worth watching for fans of over-the-top, bloody comedic action and brutal vigilante violence, but also for anyone with a weakness for coming-of-age stories with a big helping of heart.

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Kick-Ass 2: Realigning with old strengths

Attention! Spoilers for Kick-Ass follow.

In addition to Dave Lizewski (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) as the title character there is also the son of the previous villain, Chris D’Amico (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), who, after a serious incident with his mother, now goes by the name Mother -fucker, with an army of supervillains to take revenge on the self-proclaimed superhero Kick-Ass, who is, after all, his father’s killer.

Chris dons his mother’s patent leather S&M outfit and recruits all sorts of quirky villains who actually look like comic book characters come to life (Olga Kurkulina as Mother Russia) and appropriately politically incorrect names like Genghis Carnage (Tom Wu) and Death Negra (Daniel Kaluuya).

After Chloë Grace Moretz delivered one of the biggest and funniest WTF movie moments of all time with her first appearance as a hit-girl in Kick-Ass, the now not-so-little heroine has a lot more to do in part two. Consequently, the sequel should be called Mindy, since, while in the previous film we saw Dave Lizewski becoming Kick-Ass, now the teenager who was raised to be a killing machine just wants to lead a completely normal life like Mindy after the death of her father. father (Nicolas Cage).

She trades nunchucks for lip gloss, focuses on crafty boy bands instead of unscrupulous criminals – and no longer wastes her thoughts on her next murder, but on her first kiss. A courageous reorientation, very understandable from the characters’ point of view. And the fact that the director is as consistent here as when it comes to action, is not only close to the comics, but above all also very consistent.

And this is exactly where the greatest strength of Kick-Ass 2 lies, which was also inherent to Kick-Ass: the film offers a completely crazy and exaggerated spectacle and yet moves the viewer by touching their heart in the right place. If in one scene you wonder who the hell has such abnormal and crazy ideas, in the next moment you feel total empathy as the protagonists experience deep human suffering – especially with Dave, his relationship with his father and also with his love interest, who is subjected to a particularly difficult test. Despite all the colorful absurdity going on around it, Kick-Ass is surprisingly close in its calmer moments.

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Worth reading: The Kick-Ass comics

The comic series continues successfully to this day and always establishes new focuses – from the classic Kick-Ass stories about Dave Lizweski to spin-offs about Hit-Girl and a completely new heroine. If you can’t see blood, avoid them. In comics, things are much more difficult than in the more harmless (and still quite brutal) films.

*Translation from a partner site of QuandoCinema

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