Kick Ass With No Power Comes No Responsibility

Kick Ass With No Power Comes No Responsibility

With No Power Comes No Responsibility A Review in High Definition

What if Quentin Tarantino made a faux superhero movie? I ask this rhetorically not to diminish this movie's off -kilter originality, but to draw a baseline of sensibility and quality in Matthew Vaughn's explosively funny and explosively violent Kick-Ass. It's the sincerest compliment I can give that this movie's ability to pay homage to its genre, satirize and deconstruct it, and then blow the lid off it reminds me of Tarantino. The gallery of characters, and their alter egos, are familiar in every way, yet they're complete originals. The question the movie asks is, what if your average teenage dweeb did what his onscreen and in-comic idols do and dressed up like a superhero and started fighting crime? This movie's super antihero, Kick-Ass, is part of the answer; along with two other wanna-be super antiheroes who are much more the real deal: Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) and the pint-sized, foul-mouthed little can of ultra violence that is Hit-Girl (Chloe Moretz). The other answer, which is not shortchanged one bit here, is that Kick-Ass would be in way over his head and get his ass kicked. Aaron Johnson as Kick-Ass is eminently likable, but Cage and Moretz are marvels. Cage reminds us (finally) that he does offbeat as disturbingly well and with as much originality as anyone (Christopher Walken would be proud of this one). Moretz is a force of nature in the way she owns every scene she's in.

The image quality is stylized, with vibrant but not necessarily natural-looking colors. The depth is always impressive, even if it's not the last word in fine textural detail. I saw some noise here and there, especially on Kick-Ass' costume. Overall, this is a fine-looking but not reference quality HD image. The sound is also good, with aggressive surrounds and big bass when called for. The score, which evokes every superhero movie theme ever even though you can't quite put your finger on it, is well served by lossless audio.

This Kick-Ass Blu-ray is as loaded as the Red Mist mobile. Two HD making-of featurettes go nearly three hours and are comprehensive and entertaining. There's also a strong Bonus View PiP feature. It's driven by writer-direct Vaughn and crammed with excellent behind-the-scenes material. When you download the Metamenu app, you can control the Blu-ray playback experience on a handheld device like an iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch. You'll be able to manage bookmarks, access cast and crew bios and other metadata, add personal media tracks with alternate audio or subtitles, and experience it all on the handheld device, without interrupting the movie.

I don't know what I expected from Kick-Ass, but I certainly never entertained the possibility that I'd think to myself afterward, "Wow, I'm never gonna hear the theme from Banana Splits the same way again." Whatever you think of this (and you could very well find it the most reprehensible thing ever), you've never seen anything like it. The sound is also good, with aggressive surrounds and big bass when called for. The score, which evokes every superhero movie theme ever even though you can't quite put your finger on it, is well served by lossless audio.

By: Francis David

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