Kick Ass Movie Preview
Matthew Vaughn was destined to get to superheroes eventually. After an eleventh-hour exit from directing the third X-Men outing in 2005, he side-stepped into the fantasy genre, successfully adapting Neil Gaiman’s playful novel Stardust (with a very starry cast to boot), and revealed a flair for tongue-in-cheek comedy; quite a change from his efficient and brutally violent debut, Layer Cake. It appears that comic books were still close to his heart though, as his forthcoming third feature is an adaptation of Kick-Ass, an ongoing comics series by Scottish writer Mark Millar and American artist John Romita Jr. Described by Millar as ‘Spider-Man meets Superbad’, Kick-Ass appears to fit Vaughn’s established styles perfectly, taking a cheeky sideways glance at the superhero genre and layering it with blood-gushing violence.
The title refers to the superhero name that ordinary kid Dave Lizewski assumes when he decides to put on a home-made costume and become a crime fighter. This decision is prompted by a question: how come, out of all the billions of people in the world, no-one has ever actually tried to do what the guys in the comics do? Dave decides to give it a shot, and is predictably laughed at and beaten up by the criminals he tries to stop. But in taking that first step he becomes aware of others who are out there doing the same thing, and while they’re all just as ‘normal’ as Dave, they’re a little bit more prepared for action.
