Kick-Ass

Directed by Matthew Vaughn

(R)

***

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Kick-Ass “lives up to the promise of its title,” said Mick LaSalle in the San Francisco Chronicle. Director Matthew Vaughn, adapting Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.’s comic books, has created an “audacious, compulsively watchable, irresistibly likable piece of pure entertainment.” In this smart take on the superhero genre, an unremarkable teenage boy (Aaron Johnson) transforms from geek to masked avenger by simply dressing up in a scuba suit. As Vaughn introduces other quirky superheroes, including Nicolas Cage and Chloe Grace Moretz as a father-daughter team, he cranks up the violence to cartoon-like levels. The director couldn’t have made a worse decision, said Michael Phillips in the Chicago Tribune. Kick-Ass has sparked controversy because of the beatings “directed at, or perpetrated by,” Moretz’s preteen character. Yet “the more pressing issue is how stupidly relentless the gore is, from beginning to end.” Still, Kick-Ass has more to offer than mere slam-bang, said Ann Hornaday in The Washington Post. With a clever plot and a sense of humor about its genre, Kick-Ass turns out to be an action film that’s unusually grounded in reality.