Kicking Ass
Kick Ass. The comic. The movie. Had no clue about it. “You wanna go see it?”. I don’t know, is it any good?”. “Well, it was written by Mark Millar, you know the guy that.....”.
Wait, what? Mark Millar?
I remembered the guy my BF dragged me to see one day, in one of the most famed LA Comic stores; it was a sit-down, sort of like a meet and greet with fans. He wanted to see Mark Millar and get one of his comics autographed; I wanted to be worshiped by geeks for one afternoon. Come on, did you see me? Wonder Woman, incarnated. Too much? Fine, more like the X-Men’s Jean Grey, Phoenix incarnated. I’m 6 feet tall, what do you want from me?
We came to Golden Apple, the LA famed comic store, and bam, cold shower! The naked terror of 1500 people waiting around the block to talk to this guy, see this guy, touch this guy, grope this guy. There was no way in hell I was going to wait for 5 hours to have a comic book signed. But when I saw my BF’s disappointed eyes, hell, I had to do something. I had to rescue the autograph mission. Phoenix to the mission!
I went in, calculating my geek worshipers won’t freak out instantly, cause I was going to pretend I’m not there to see M. Millar, but rather just buy something in the store. When I was in, Superhero mode ON, I came up to the M.M’s bodyguard and asked if I can just give him, the bodyguard, the comic to take to M.M to sign, and since we don’t really want to talk to him, it shouldn’t be a big deal, right? Two seconds, bam! Wrong.
The bodyguard didn’t have any facial expression so that I can conclude what his thoughts are about my suggestion, slash, plan. He just left me there, without saying anything. Then the weirdest thing happened. Mark Millar himself actually saw the whole ordeal, psssst the bodyguard over, and told him to bring me over to him, bypassing all 1500 geeks and geekettes waiting in line.
What can I tell you.
Mark Millar just knows natural-born superheroes when he sees one. Experience.
He was so cool and badass, and no one complained. He signed the comic, and that’s where I found out he wrote ‘Wanted’, which was going to become one of my favorite movies of all time. James McAvoy, kissing Angelina Jolie. That is simply my version of heaven.
To go back to the beginning of this article: “You want to go see Kick Ass?”
“Hell fucking, yeah.”
About the movie? I’m still reliving the 12-year-old bashing, kicking, and slamming guys all over the place like it’s a walk in the park. The choreography of the fights was almost poetic. It was like a ballet of fighting. It’s interesting, the visual style of the whole movie was so innovative, but it didn’t interfere with the storyline; it was graphic, it was brutal, it was as if you can taste a bit of Tarantino in it.
And the girl, the 12-year-old actress, Chloe Grace Moretz, so talented, there’s something so Natalie Portman’s ‘The Professional’ in her. The way she does cold-blooded killer with being adorable blew my mind. This girl doing action scenes so believably; having an actor in the house and knowing how difficult even regular action scenes can be on the body of a grown 6’4’ man; so impressive.
This little actress IS a Superhero.
As for all the puritans complaining the 12-year-old character taking part in this much brutality on screen is what’s bad for America’s youth; I say, please. Cheating, divorcing, abusive parents do much worse on a child’s psyche, daily.
It’s a movie, it’s unreal, it's escapism, it’s a fantasy. Let me enjoy the notion of a teenage girl slamming jerks around walls for two hours.
It’s my escapism.
