April 17, 2010
-
There’s several talks online regarding the comparisons between the movie adaptation and the graphic novel original of “Kick-Ass.” Without giving out too much spoilers, the main difference is that some plot twists from the book were not taken advantaged of, one particular character’s origin was different between the book and movie, the abilities of the 11 years old vigilante prodigy “Hit-Girl” were a bit more exaggerated on film, plus the conclusion for the movie was much more in the positive optimistic light compared to the books more negative depressing resolution.
Much to my surprised, there are MORE people who prefer the movie OVER the book. How often does that happen? Usually it’s the other way around. In general though, there are a lot of people who enjoyed the “Kick-Ass” movie, so people in the minority who didn’t like the film is going to be singled out by those who loved it. In one particular famous example, movie critic Roger Ebert gave the movie 1 star out of 4. That’s pretty low coming from Ebert, and a lot of people on the internet are upset with him for that.
- Roger Ebert reviews “Kick-Ass” (link) Warning : He actually spoils the movie!
After reading his review, I’ve got to say that he completely wore his heart on his sleeve when he wrote that. He just couldn’t get pass the fact that an 11 year old girl is murdering adults left and right. It seemed that he was misled into thinking that this was suppose to be a lighthearted superhero movie, but was put off by some of the more grittier aspects of the story. On that note, I agree with Ebert, that IS a problem with the tone of the film, which will have to be blamed on director Matthew Vaughn, and possibly the confines of it’s independently produced “low” budget of $30 Million.
The more specific problems that Ebert seems to have with the movie is actually dealt with in the comic book, which the movie changed. Notice how he thought the first half showed promise, which coincidentally enough were the parts that mostly resembled the book (2nd half, not so much). He thought there was an odd tonal change at the second half when the grittier aspect of the story was more obvious in the first half. The book had a consistent balance of grittiness and humor throughout the story, which the movie didn’t handle as well. Ebert thinks that Hit-Girl didn’t show enough emotions when she was mowing down the bad guys? Well the book was more obvious on what was going on with her psyche at that time, than the more subtle approach the movie took.
Flame him for hating on a currently popular movie, but I thought he had good points in his review, despite fixating too much on the controversial Hit-Girl topic.
Personally, I enjoyed the movie a lot. I don’t think it’s necessarily a “superior” super hero movie, because the changes made to the story kinda made the movie a much more conventional comic book film than it should have been. I would go as far and say that the movie “sold out.” The question at the beginning of the movie was why nobody tries to be a superhero. The way the book answered that question is because it is a foolish idea to try and do. The way the movie answered it, you’d think it actually encourages people to try it. The book simply gave you that wish-fulfillment of being a superhero but brought you down to reality by the conclusion, while the movie kept you in that fantasy world of being…. super.
It is a fun movie to watch, but it’s definitely not “realistic” as some people would have you believe; which was part of the strength of the book. I clearly like the book, but it can be a bit of a downer once you get to the end of the story, so the happier ending of the movie is a welcome change. This is possibly the reason why a lot of people seem to like the movie more than the book.
P.S. There are actually people bringing up the “Watchmen” movie when talking about “Kick-Ass,” and actually arguing which one is better? Two different style comic book movies people. One does not have to be better than the other. It’s all subjective.
- Kick-Ass the graphic novel hardcover edition (link)
- Kick-Ass the movie on the Internet Movie Data Base (link)
