In Defence of Kick-Ass... Not that it needs it.

The latest film to leave a trail of disgruntled Daily Mail readers in its wake (Their review carried the discreet headline “Don't be fooled by the hype: This crime against cinema is twisted, cynical, and revels in the abuse of childhood”) is Kick-Ass and although at points it may seem to be recklessly breaking taboos for laughs, what its critics may find even more disturbing is that this film has its finger frighteningly close to the pulse of contemporary youth culture.

Firstly I want to say that I did not care much for the films protagonist Dave Lizewski, who is played competently enough by Aaron Johnson but, in trying to create a teenage everyman the writers have come up with a character of very little substance. Perhaps this is so that, as seems to be the case in the Twilight series, the teenage audience can then graft themselves onto this nonspecific central character but Dave seems distant and difficult to identify with.
The real star of this show and, maybe even for the same reasons, the source of most of the films controversy, is Hit Girl, played by Chloë Grace Moretz. Fighting alongside her father Damon Macready, pseudonym Big Daddy (an unusually enjoyable performance from Nicholas Cage) the 11 year old slices and dices her way through the criminal underground, spouting a foul-mouthed tirade against her adversaries along the way. I’ll address the violence in this film first before I get to the language, which I think is more important here.

You would hope everyone knew by now that people could enjoy violence on screen without going out and killing all their friends as soon as the credits roll. Still it is an issue and even more so here as it is a child handing out, as well as receiving, the poundings. “Do we really want to live, for instance, in a culture when the torture and killing of a James Bulger or Damilola Taylor is re-enacted by child actors for laughs?” says the Daily Mail critic reviewing the film, in absolute seriousness. I think that, as far as Hit Girl is concerned, this film is fantasy. Her fight scenes are devastating but also heavily CGI-laden as she performs acrobatic stunts that could never be expected from a girl her age. Likewise when she is shot by her father, you could never compare that to say, the harrowing scenes of child shootings in City of God, as taken in context of the film this is actually an ironic twist on the fathers overprotective care of his daughter, ensuring she knows how to use a bulletproof vest.

Next, the language and her soon to be legendary one-liner "OK, you c*nts, let's see what you can do now." This is where the writing of the film really excels. Whereas some might see this as being controversial for the sake of it I think I think it actually demonstrates how the parameters of acceptable language have changed. Later on in the film, for instance, Dave and his love interest, rather than say “I love you”, say “I really care about you”, a comment on the fact that for youth of today “love”, like “c*nt” may have become something of an empty word. Although you wouldn’t want to her a child speak like Hit Girl in real life, here it’s ok because it’s a film, remember?

Sometimes I feel a bit like one of those chimps put in front of a mirror to see whether it can recognise itself or not. It is a sad fact that some people, generally older than myself, still seem to think that the youth of today are unable to differentiate between reality and what they see on screen. 4/5.