There is a term known as “jumping the shark” which comes from an episode of the television show Happy Days. In that episode, Fonzie (heeeeey) literally jumps over a shark while riding water skis and wearing his iconic leather jacket. It means the point in a show or movie when the original concept is tossed aside and any credibility is lost. Why am I telling you all of this? Kick Ass 2 jumped the shark in the first twenty minutes. It only took twenty minutes for this movie to completely ruin Kick Ass for me and I really loved the first film. I thought it was a fresh take on the admittedly stale superhero genre and that did it in a subversive fashion. Kick Ass 2 manages to not have any of the good qualities of the first movie and completely brings down the franchise in general.Most of the characters from the first film return in the sequel but they don’t speak or act anything like the original. They are shadows of what they were and have zero motivation for anything they do. It’s like they asked a twelve-year-old boy what he thought would be cool to see in a movie, had him write the script and then let him film it. I will never understand why Hollywood will make a movie that is great and does well financially and then hand the sequel over to a completely different and usually inferior director. It happens almost every time. The story is haphazard and nothing is really connected. It’s almost like you're watching a two hour trailer. The fight scenes are a shaky cam mess and the editing is spastic and confusing.
Now, I know there was some controversy with Jim Carrey denouncing the film for its gratuitous violence, but really he should have denounced it because it’s just plain terrible. Ironically enough, Carrey is the best character in the film, and one of the only people with an interesting back story (which they gloss over). It is violent, but in a silly, cartoony way with lots of toilet humor thrown in for good measure. It doesn’t have the grittiness of the first film and just comes off very juvenile. There is one action sequence that is really awesome and shows the potential that could have been, but who wants to pay ten dollars to see ten minutes of entertainment? That’s like a dollar a minute!
Honestly, I haven’t been this disappointed in a movie in a long time. I had pretty high hopes for Kick Ass 2 because the first movie was great, but my hopes were dashed, as I mentioned above, within the first twenty minutes. I waited for it to get better and it never did. Even if you are a huge fan of the first film and the comics, you will probably be just as let down as I was. I cannot recommend this movie at all.
- Review by Michelle Kisner