By Chris Minitelli
Staff Writer
With its unique blend of extreme violence and ironic comedy, the second installment of the “Kick-Ass” franchise worked to call upon the popular qualities of the first film. In “Kick-Ass 2,” Dave Lizewski, or Kick-Ass, finds himself alone after returning to his nightly crime-fighting routine. Ultimately, Kick-Ass joins the team Justice Forever. It is a group of ordinary citizens who go around New York City fighting crime as superheroes. As he fights a variety of crimes alongside these eccentric characters, Kickass finds himself struggling with many other issues, in addition to nightly crime fighting.
"Kick-Ass 2” definitely tries to take a somewhat different tone and approach than the first film. Throughout the movie, Mindy Macready, formerly known as the superheroine Hit-Girl, finds herself attempting to deal with being a teenager.
She decides to give up crime fighting and tries to immerse herself in the high school scene by becoming friends with popular girls, dating and joining the dance team.
There were many noteworthy aspects of “Kick-Ass 2,” which certainly make the film better. One of these qualities is the cast.
All of the actors from the original film returned for the sequel, aside from Nicholas Cage. The cast of “Kick-Ass 2” includes Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Chloë Grace Moretz and newcomer Jim Carrey. While the entire cast was quite good, the true standout was Moretz, who reprised her role as the no-nonsense, tough, yet kind and caring, Mindy Macready.
While “Kick-Ass 2” takes a different tone than the first installment, this film also delves much deeper into the development of its characters. I feel that each of the characters face more challenges, or at least extreme personal changes, which undoubtedly turn their lives upside down.
These extreme alterations inevitably force the characters to face their internal and external challenges while subsequently growing and changing. Most of these developments helped progress the plot of “Kick-Ass 2.” However, a number of characters were left quite underdeveloped.
Ultimately, “Kick-Ass 2” was a relatively good sequel to the 2010 original. While I think the original movie was much better than the second, this film is worth watching, especially since there is already talk of making a third and final “Kick-Ass.”
