Last Friday I sat in a darkened movie theater, wading through shitty trailers and waiting for what was in my mind the most anticipated movie of the year.  I was a little nervous at that point.  Could Kick-Ass possibly live up to the hype or was I being duped by another series of slick trailers that Hollywood cranks out these days?

The answer is HELL YA!  That is to the part about living up to the hype.

Kick-Ass is an adaptation of a comic book by Mark Millar and John Romito.  The film is directed by Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake).  Aaron Johnson plays Dave Lizewski an awkward high-schooler who asks a simple question: Why has no one ever tried to be a real super hero?  After he and his friend are mugged one day while a witness stands by and does nothing he decides to take matters into his own hands.

He buys a costume, dubs himself Kick-Ass, he trains and then when he is ready he starts fighting crime gets beaten, stabbed and hit by a car.

This auspicious beginning does not deter him.  He recovers and sets out once again determined to do something.  After fighting a group of thugs he becomes an internet sensation when videos of the fight are posted on YouTube.

Things are looking up for Dave until he attracts the attention of a local mob boss.  He also finds out he is not alone when he meets Hit Girl (Chloe Moretz) and Big Daddy (Nicholas Cage), a brutal father and daughter team of masked crime fighters.  At this point Dave realizes that he is out of his element but it is too late, and he finds out that being a super hero involves a lot more than putting on a costume.

Everything about Kick-Ass is awesome.  Especially the acting.  The film is perfectly cast and each character has plenty of  depth.  Aaron Johnson especially puts on a nice performance.  Sure his character is naive, but he also has a charming sincerity.  I also like how there is a real difference between the way he acts when he is Dave and when he dons the costume and becomes Kick-Ass.  Christopher Mintz-Plasse, better known to many of you as McLoven from Superbad is also a nice surprise.  He puts on a great performance and shows some unexpected range as an actor.

Mark Strong is the main villain, a mofioso named Frank D’Amico,  and although some people are decrying his performance I would say it is more than adequate.  He is kind of a typical bad guy but he does a good job.

Ultimately everyone is overshadowed by Hit Girl and Big Daddy.  Chloe Moretz does a stunning job playing Hit Girl, a slightly psychopathic eleven year old who wields swords and guns and teams up with her father to fight the mob.  Now fight scenes in which an eleven year old girl destroys bad guys with a sword doesn’t sound believable but in this film they totally are.  In large part this is thanks to Chloe Moretz’s great screen presence.

For Nicholas Cage ‘Kick-Ass’ represents a return to form.  He is perfect as Big Daddy, a character sort of based on Batman which inspired a great gag in the film but I can’t ruin it .  Cage steals scenes when Moretz doesn’t and the two have a superb chemistry as father and daughter.

The fight scenes really set Kick-Ass apart from other recent action films.  This is because they are clearly filmed and shot in a straight forward manner so that you can actually see what is happening (I’m looking at you Bourne Trilogy), and there is restraint when it comes to the use of slow motion (I’m looking at you Zack Snyder).  The sound track perfectly accompanies all of this.  You will probably never listen to Banana Splits the same way again.

There are certain things about this film that need to be cleared up.  If you have read other reviews you have probably heard some very negative things about this film.  Some people have accused ‘Kick-Ass’ of sexualizing the character of Hit Girl.  This is not true.  If you look at this film these are some of the most modest costumes you will see a superhero wearing.  In one scene Hit Girl is dressed in a school girl outfit but the way the scene is shot it really seems like they were trying to keep it as clean as possible.  It’s simply a disguise.

Yes the film is violent, very violent in fact.  If this isn’t your thing don’t watch it.  Kickass does dangerous things like mixing humor and hard core violence.  The most dangerous thing it does, however, is expecting its audience to be able to read between the lines.  It looks you in the eye and smiles while holding a knife behind its back.  I don’t think that we are supposed to buy into everything that is happening on screen.  Take for instance Big Daddy and Hit Girl.  I don’t believe that we are supposed to simply go along and think that there is nothing wrong with the fact that Big Daddy has turned his daughter into a psychopathic killing machine.

Kick-Ass blew away my expectations completely exceeding my wildest hopes and dreams.  Ladies and gentlemen the greatest comic book film ever made is in our theaters right now.