Oh, and it's also apparently the most morally reprehensible film ever projected in a multiplex.
At issue is Hit Girl, an 11-year-old cursing, killing machine who cares about nothing in life except her vengeance seeking father and getting that new butterfly knife for her birthday. According to some, including Roger Ebert with SPOILERS, this takes things one step too far.
"This isn't comic violence. These men, and many others in the film, are really stone-cold dead. And the 11-year-old apparently experiences no emotions about this. Many children that age would be, I dunno, affected somehow, don't you think, after killing eight or 12 men who were trying to kill her?"The fundamental issue for Ebert and other reviewers is that Kick-Ass depicts realistic superheroes performing realistic violence. That Hit Girl will be emulated and that 11 year-old girls will suddenly take a shot at being cold-blooded assassins.
Really?
First, on this being a real world depiction and realistic violence: yes, the high school and its inhabitants seem very grounded in the real world (or at least as real a world as Hollywood ever creates in high school movies). There are nerds and bullies and beautiful girls who are unaware of the main character's existence. However, the movie takes a hard right turn into an unrealistic world early in the film. When?
When Hit Girl and her father appear on screen.
The movie at that point stops even pretending at realism. It's absurdist. The humor in the situation comes not because we as an audience find 11-year-old killers hysterical. It's because the girl's existence is so incongruent with reality, it is funny.
Now is this character engaged in realistic violence? In the world of movie criticism, yes. In the real world, no. See, "realistic violence" in the official movie critic's dictionary means "blood." As in, you stab a charcter they bleed. You shoot them they bleed. If you aim a gun, pull a trigger and the person falls over, it's not realistic. Do the same and their head explodes, it is realistic.
So yes there is "realistic violence." And much of it is perpetrated by a character whose existence is not realistic. Using weapons that are not exactly off-the-shelf at Walmart. Even the use of the normal weapons is fantastical. In the trailer, Hit Girl shifts her head to avoid a bullet (as though a bee had just buzzed by her head), releases two empty clips from her gun, throws two full clips into the air and has them land back in the gun in one fluid motion. That is what passes for realistic violence.
There's more I could say about the film itself, but I'll close on this note for parents: this is not a movie for kids. There are clues to this. It is rated R. Its title is Kick-Ass. There are a lot of reviews that give you the detail you need. If you are thinking of letting them go, see it yourself first. If you are still going to let them see it, have a conversation about it. In short, parents should parent. That goes for all movies, but this one more than most.
