It’s a widely accepted facet of the Hollywood status quo that Nicholas Cage gets first dibs on any superhero project in early development. Having watched Mark Steven Johnson’s Ghost Rider I’m sure I’m not the only soul grateful that only one such project has clawed its way out from development hell.Whether you love a bit of ‘Cage’ action or not, his star prowess is noticeably absent from the early promotional material for Matthew Vaughn’s Kick-Ass. The cynic in me would suggest that this is a conscious effort by the film’s producers to distance Kick-Ass from recent box-office dead weight like Ghost Rider however, the fan boy in me hopes that it is in fact an attempt to let the product speak for itself.
Created by Marvel’s current golden boy Mark Miller, Kick-Ass is the story of a powerless teenager who fantasises about being a superhero. With a wet suit purchased from eBay Dave Lizewski sets about his ill-conceived plan and soon crosses paths with a number of masked vigilantes whose modus operandi differs exponentially from his own.
Miller’s pop savvy speech bubbles, coupled with Romita Jr’s visceral, ultra-violent images mean that Kick-Ass is probably the closest Marvel have come to producing a comic book set in the real world.
That’s not to say it’s as dull as the daily grind, the first six issues read like an idiots guide to becoming a sociopath. Whether or not you see an outbreak of sword wielding pre-pubescents culling packs of ‘hoodies’ outside your local Spar will probably, sadly rely solely on the adaptations success or failure to accrue substantial box-office revenue.
Whilst my opinions on the source material are now clear, I’m still somewhat divided over the principal talent. Director Vaughn, the man who bailed on X-men 3, is still yet to direct a truly great movie and the cast he’s assembled is largely unproven with Cage being the only real known entity.
In the titular role is Aaron Johnson, seen recently as the adolescent love interest in the cringe inducing, Angus Thongs and Perfect Snogging. However, Johnson has been garnering critical praise for his portrayal of a young John Lennon in Sam Taylor-Wood’s Nowhere Boy. Supporting cast comes curiously from McLovin aka Christopher Mintz-Plasse as ‘Red Mist’, a role for which I fear he may be slightly miss cast. However, Vaughn may just have stumbled across a hidden gem when casting the notorious ‘Hit Girl’. Chloe Moretz, the scene stealing sibling from (500) Days of Summer, is it would seem, perfectly cast as the wonderfully disenfranchised, daughter of Nick Cage’s ‘Big Daddy’. Whilst it remains to be seen how receptive audiences are to a ten year old slicing open skulls like boiled eggs, it is the unlikely pairing of Moretz with Cage that has restored my faith in this adaptaion.
Kick-Ass is due for release in the U.S. on the 16th of April 2010.
