Alright, here is my spoil free review of Kick Ass 2...
You woke up one day and wanted to be a super hero? Welcome to Dave's world. The movie picks up a little while past the first movie. For those who don't know Kick Ass is a group of comics (there's currently 3 sets with a fourth and probably final arc coming out at some point) and its known for its very gruesome and sometimes celebration of violence and realism. In the comics and movies alike, there's a group of people who put on outfits and decide that they are going to be super heroes. When doing so there's lots of times through the first film that our main protagonist is beaten within an inch of his life.
Enter the second round of films and comics. Hours of training with a master hero named Hit Girl and ... you get beat within an inch of your life.
Joking aside, Kick Ass 2 takes the dark comic story arc which is comparable to The Empire Strikes Back and turns down the pure awfulness of its main villain and replaces it with a comedic nature. You think "Well that sucks, the MFer is realistically the first true super villain potrayed in comics that is very human."
Well, the good news is that the comedy only strikes where the comics become darker. The movie focuses on a group of Super Heroes and the Super Villains that follow. Kick Ass spends much of his time dealing with the real world consequences of the first story arc such as his relationship with Hit Girl, trying to keep his identity secret and working in time for girls.
The movie greatly walks away from the comics though. There are scenes of death, murder and outright debauchery that aren't in the movie and I think that's okay because you're trying to appeal to an entire audience of people, not just the 10% who love the world of the comics. At the same time, you don't feel like the main villains are as sadistic as they are potrayed in the comics.
The down and dirty is this, Kick Ass 2 is truly an adaptation of the 2nd set of Comics (Hit Girl) and the 3rd Set (Kick Ass 2) in a way that is tolerable to most Rated R movie goers. They use comedy to hide the darkness of the comics and they actually do well without it seeming like a cop out. If you're like me you'll think "Hey that's different" and after its execution you'll feel weird about it but understand it.
The movie takes the characters of the first movie and continues to push their antics while costumed into something larger than life while keeping them grounded in the real world as well as with real consequences.
The only true gripe I have about the movie is the relationship between Hit Girl and Kick Ass is really tossed about in this film. The directors, writers, producers and maybe the president himself just couldn't figure out how to make it appeal to audiences and you notice that. Kick Ass the comics have very little romance within them, often times siding with despair and loneliness. The movies try to alleviate that, because the movie works to make you have fun watching the fights and generally sit on the edge of your seat and laugh at times.
The final truth is that Kick Ass is wrote as a tragedy through and through. I'm not sure if there will be a third set of movies to go with the final set of comics, but I can tell you that while its a lot of fun to watch, the glaring holes in the story from lack of time and trying to adapt a dark story into something that has a ...positive? ending makes it fall short of what the comic lovers will want. To a true audience who have not read the comics, they'll say that the first was better, but the second was fun too.
In the end you'll always remember Dave dawning his scuba suit and Hit Girl with her witty charm as the main reasons to engulf this series, until then I would expect that if there is a third movie it will fall short of kicking ass.
A 3.5 out of 5.
