Kick Ass 2: more violence, swearing and mayhem, but does it pack the punch of the original?

In a year of bloated superhero blockbusters, Kick Ass was a breath of fresh air when it exploded onto our screens in 2010. It perfectly parodied the clichés which had come to dominate fantasy cinema in hail of demented ultra-violence and obscene language. But has new director Jeff Wadlow created a sequel worthy of the fantastic guilty pleasure that Kick Ass was?


All the ingredients which made Kick Ass great are still here; colourful vigilantes, scheming villains and dark, dark humour. And yet, throughout the film you get the distinct impression that something is missing. Perhaps it's that the element of surprise which helped Kick Ass stun and shock its audiences is almost impossible to recapture in a sequel. Kick Ass 2 instead opts to recycle so much of the original film that it looses much of it's impact. While a lethal 11 year old assassin slaughtering a gang of thugs in the first Kick Ass both amazed and offended thousands of cinema goers, such action seems predictable and almost directly lifted in Kick Ass 2.

Much of the cast of Kick Ass return for the sequel, with Aaron Taylor-Johnson reprising his role as makeshift hero Kick Ass. However, only Chloë Grace Moretz's teenage vigilante Hit Girl truly shines here, living up to the high standard she set in Kick Ass with another perfect performance. It's a shame that the script gives her little screen time as the violent costumed warrior, preferring to cast her as Mindy MacCready, the teenager behind the mask, attempting to find her place in normal school life, but once again Moretz creates a brilliantly believable character. Unfortunately, a little of the shine of the other characters has been lost during the transition between original and sequel, with neither Kick Ass or antagonist Chris D'Amico (Christoper Mintz-Plasse) giving as convincing or driven performances as they portrayed in the first film. It's possibly because some of the focus of the original Kick Ass has been lost on a whole host of supporting characters, notably Jim Carrey's Colonel Stars and Stripes.

While Kick Ass's violence was extreme, the bombastic and humorous nature of the film prevented it from entering the realm of true bad taste. Jim Carrey's disownership of the film might have suggested that there is more violence here than in the original Kick Ass, but this is not the case. However, while Kick Ass 2's violence is little more deranged than the original's, in attempting to make the film darker and more gritty the scriptwriter has inadvertently pushed certain scenes out of the comic book halo surrounding the film, an attempted rape played for laughs making particularly grim viewing. And unlike Kick Ass, the script lacks emotional attachment, so when likeable characters are killed the film goes straight back to cracking jokes, which rather numbs the audience's feelings for the deceased characters.

Still, maybe I'm being too harsh. Kick Ass 2 has brilliantly succeeded in creating what is for the most part a gloriously entertaining film, which is what made Kick Ass so wonderful in the first place. It might not be as close to perfect escapism as the first film, but, as you might have guessed from the title, it still kicks plenty of ass.

6/10