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5 Reasons Why Kick-Ass The Movie Kicked The Comic’s Ass

4. Escalation

Escalation final

I get that Dave is ordinary, but that doesn’t mean that he can’t say something with some amount of gravitas to it. While the movie does borrow some great lines from the book including the infamous “Okay you c*nts, let’s see what you can do” Hit Girl quote, the movie recovers the pigskin of awesome that the book fumbled with, and just runs it into the end-zone.

For those unfamiliar with that analogy, the movie just pumps everything with life, phasing over the parts of the book that make Dave into a more washy, uncertain character (I swear he gives up the Kick-Ass mantle at least twice in the book). For example, in the comics, after Dave is the victim of a hit and run, he is found naked on the streets. His rationale was that he must have taken off the suit before he passed out, which given the amount of bodily harm Dave had endured at this point, seems literally physically impossible. In the movie, however, Dave just convinces the medic in the ambulance not to tell Dave’s dad about the costume. We still get the excellent Dave being Katie’s gay BFF storyline, but it actually makes sense here.

Right after Dave’s hit and run, he gives us some idea of the lengthy and painful recovery process required for his injuries, and the guilt he felt for leaving his Dad with medical bills, and some morphine hallucinations of his dead mother telling him not to wear the suit, and an overly dramatic burning of all of his comics etc. etc. These are all good reasons why Dave should drop the costume, and yet, it just makes him look more like an inconsiderate prick when he orders a new wetsuit. Morally, we should be behind Dave’s actions the entire time since his heroic intentions should never falter.

What the movie does instead is phase over nearly all of Dave’s recovery time, reducing the sad-sack role of the Dad all-together in favor of some Cosa Nostra shenanigans. So instead of Dave crying in his Craftmatic adjustable bed, we get to see Mafia capos debate on whether or not Trey was robbed by Batman, or “some guy that looks like Batman,” in addition to an excellent human-sized microwave interrogation scene.

Another excellent example of escalation comes in the torture scene of Kick-Ass and Big Daddy. It’s brutal, sure, but it works. The “mere” testicular electrocution that appears in the comic, is replaced instead with a webcam snuff show. Electric shocks to the balls is just so… overdone, and there really is no way to illustrate it in film correctly, beyond acting notes of “your balls really hurt”. The mafia educational program on how to properly kick someone’s ass however is perfectly executed, from the silent k in knuckle-duster to the grand symphony of blunt-force trauma that it culminates to. For those missing that particular brand of testicular trauma, Dave does take a metal bat to the beanbag, so everybody’s happy.

Dave even breaks the fourth wall in this scene, stating that he may just be another Sin City narrator, telling us a story only for him to die suddenly. This one little line of narration creates dramatic tension that was noticeably absent from the work beforehand.

Incidentally, and I’m pretty sure Kick-Ass scribe Mark Millar received enough flack for this the first time, but why is it so important that Dave emphasizes that the gang he fought is a bunch of Puerto Ricans? It’s as if Millar overcompensates with his PC terms after this issue, referring to Katie’s new boyfriend as “The enormous African American guy,” instead of just “The enormous black guy.” The movie plays it safe, and makes sure that Kick-Ass just kicks ass, regardless of the color of said ass.

Even the grandstanding final fight in the Mafia compound is handled differently in the two works. It’s apples and oranges, honestly. Flamethrowers and jetpack mounted mini guns, an homage to Battle Royale and cocaine ampoules. Now don’t get me wrong, both scenes are epic in their own right. Hit Girl’s super secret chemical compound, condition red, or an eight ball of cocaine, is an excellent exchange in the comic, and the flamethrower mounted in her Hello Kitty backpack is a homicidally adorable accessory, but you can never out-do the gunfight down a hallway and bazooka-filled final fight of the movie. In the comic, Frank (John Genovese is his name in the comics but let’s just stay consistent here) gets his tunk (bangers and mash, a term coined in the comics) shot off, and Hit Girl delivers a coup de grace cleaver to the dome, while the rest of the mobsters inexplicably just look on in horror.

It’s not poorly done, but Kick-Ass the movie features a guy getting propelled out of the window by a rocket-propelled grenade, only to explode like some sort of mobster firework. Little girls on cocaine are cool and all, but the movie is the comic on cocaine. Everything is bigger, better, and filled with better expletives.

Though some would argue that Kick-Ass is supposed to be a less is more, down and dirty work, I believe this line from Mob Boss and primary antagonist Frank D’Amico summarizes the point I’m trying to make perfectly:

“A bazooka? ………… okay.”

 

About the author

Chris Davidson