{"id":3234,"date":"2010-04-17T15:37:18","date_gmt":"2010-04-17T22:37:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/reallifesuperheroes.org\/?p=3234"},"modified":"2010-04-17T15:37:18","modified_gmt":"2010-04-17T22:37:18","slug":"kick-ass-tests-the-limits-of-exploitainment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/2010\/04\/17\/kick-ass-tests-the-limits-of-exploitainment\/","title":{"rendered":"Kick-Ass Tests the Limits of \u201cExploitainment\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally Posted: http:\/\/www.daggerpress.com\/2010\/04\/16\/kick-ass-tests-the-limits-of-exploitainment\/print<\/a>
\nPosted By Adam Mehring On April 16, 2010 @ 3:37 am In Featured, Movies, Pop & Culture | 35 Comments
\nA touch more than 70 years ago, Gone with the Wind kicked up controversy for its use of what was considered profane language. The line in question, of course, is now a ubiquitous cinematic staple, frequently repeated without hesitation. Frankly, no one really gives a damn about it anymore.
\nKick-Ass makes its way into theaters this weekend, bearing a title that would have sparked considerable outrage on its own back in the days of Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, and the Motion Picture Production Code\u2019s stringent censorship regulations.
\nThe title would have boiled blood. The film itself would have caused massive coronaries.
\nKick-Ass proudly and quite audaciously features absurdly graphic violence and crude language guised by a sunny demeanor, vivid colors, and the appeal of superhero mythology.
\nAt the peak of its depravity is \u201cHit Girl,\u201d a pint-sized killing machine with the proficiency of some terribly powerful ninja master, donning a purple wig and cape or a schoolgirl outfit and pigtails\u2014and just eleven years old. She smiles wryly, even sweetly, before driving her blade through the heart of an offender, or converting an opponent\u2019s body into a bullet-riddled corpse.
\nAny sense of childlike abandonment she may yet possess is swiftly dispelled when she opens her mouth, unleashing obscenities as if they were mere yawns. Hit Girl even has the distinction of speaking the obligatory single \u201cc-word\u201d of the hard R-rated film, just as she verbally likens her cohorts to a specific feminine hygiene product (a \u201cd-word\u201d this time).
\nHit Girl\u2019s unexpected coarseness is effectively\u2014very effectively\u2014shocking. Whether the initial shock is followed by enjoyment, disgust, or some combination of the two is the point at issue.
\nAs a character, her existence is a mightily depressing one: led by her father and fellow crime-buster \u201cBig Daddy\u201d (Nicholas Cage) through a life entirely devoted to deadly maneuvers and vigilante justice. When Big Daddy purposefully fires a round into his daughter\u2019s torso to let her experience its physical impact, Hit Girl\u2019s bullet-proof vest cannot protect her innocence from shattering into a million pieces.
\nThe film does acknowledge the tragedy that Hit Girl has been robbed of her childhood but only with the passing deference of any issue brought up in a comic book caper. She is certainly no worse off because of her circumstances, nor does she seem to miss the freedoms of being a normal little girl.
\nOn the same token, Hit Girl\u2019s precocious antics are humorous in a disbelieving sort of way, and watching her massacre bad guys through increasingly improbable, ridiculous, and gloriously bloody methods proves quite exciting.
\nBut the wasted innocence of a fictional character is not really what is at stake here. Hit Girl is played by Chlo\u00eb Grace Moretz, a promising young performer on a serious spunky streak after 500 Days of Summer last year and, recently, Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
\nHit Girl is lifted from a comic book, but Moretz, believe it or not, is a real human being who, at the age of twelve, had to really say the \u201cc-word\u201d and really participate in the graphic, albeit staged, sequences of violence. It is Moretz\u2019s innocence that is potentially sacrificed by Kick-Ass, and no part of that is the slightest bit entertaining.
\nOf course, this is not the first time that filmmaking has exposed child actors to unduly explicit environments. In 1978, Director Louis Malle drew heat for his film Pretty Baby, in which a twelve year-old Brooke Shields played a child prostitute and appeared completely nude. Luc Besson caused a quieter commotion with 1994\u2019s The Professional, placing a young Natalie Portman at the center of a murdering spree and sexual objectification.
\nAnna Paquin won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar at the age of eleven for her performance in Jane Campion\u2019s The Piano, a film that featured nudity and graphic sex. However, Paquin was not involved in any of these scenes, and her father reportedly did not allow her to see the film in its entirety.
\nDistributor Lionsgate attempts to rationalize Moretz\u2019s involvement with Kick-Ass by passing the film off as harmless fantasy. Her mother is described reminding the cast and crew, \u201cIt\u2019s Hit Girl saying it, not my daughter,\u201d in reference to that certain \u201cc-word.\u201d Meanwhile, director Matthew Vaughn has apparently crafted something \u201cotherworldly,\u201d a \u201ccomic book universe\u201d with \u201chyper-real\u201d violence that is \u201ca signature of the revenge-fantasy genre in which the film is solidly steeped.\u201d
\nHere\u2019s the problem with that assertion: the principle conceit of Kick-Ass is that it takes place in our world\u2014that a normal person without any special abilities decides to strap on a scuba suit and fight injustice in a society\u2014our society\u2014accustomed to looking the other way.
\nThe film\u2019s central character, \u201cKick-Ass\u201d himself (Aaron Johnson), gains notoriety after a video of him facing off with a group of muggers goes viral on YouTube. He then uses a MySpace account to communicate with citizens in need of a superhero\u2019s assistance. When \u201cRed Mist,\u201d another makeshift costumed avenger of sorts, docks his iPod onto the dashboard of his modified Ford Mustang, the supposed \u201cotherworldly\u201d setting of Kick-Ass seems particularly our-worldly, or at least embedded with a suspicious amount of familiar technology.
\nEventually, the film does concede more of its connection to reality in favor of stylized violence and fanciful plot constructs\u2014Hit Girl\u2019s destructive rampages included\u2014but it does so against its director\u2019s own intentions, and while defying its previously established logic.
\nVaughn wants to have it both ways: to ground his film in reality and partake in decadent fantasy. And so, ultimately, Kick-Ass transpires on the untilled fields of a fanboy\u2019s paramount dreamscape.
\nEven as Lionsgate assures us of this notion\u2014that no reality they endorse would include a gun-slinging middle-schooler spewing four-letter words\u2014the studio has fostered the realism angle in its promotional push for the film. Real Life Superheroes.org [2], a website devoted to inspiring and chronicling masked crusaders in the real world, has become little more than a multi-tiered advertising platform for Kick-Ass.
\nLionsgate does not claim ownership to the site\u2014only to a coordinated campaign. However, the domain was not registered until January, 2009, three months after Kick-Ass began principal production, and otherwise lacks an internet footprint. A case of coincidental, simultaneous, and identical inspiration on the part of the Kick-Ass creative team and a group of genuinely concerned citizens, or thinly-veiled astroturfing at its most nauseating?
\nEither way, Real Life Superheroes.org claims not to endorse vigilantism but then provides links to several sex offender registries, local crime databases, and listings from America\u2019s Most Wanted, along with more links to individual state laws on carrying weapons and making citizen\u2019s arrests\u2014all under the suggestive heading of \u201cFIGHT crime.\u201d Surely, this is not a practical or helpful way to shape up society (just to boost awareness for an upcoming movie about \u201creal life superheroes\u201d), but Lionsgate offers its stamp of approval just the same.
\nThe publicized advertising blitz for Kick-Ass portrays masked heroes on brightly colored posters, images that are sure to appeal to younger crowds drawn to classic superhero iconography. Following the screening I attended, a boy no older than Hit-Girl wearing a \u201cKick-Ass\u201d novelty tee-shirt trudged out of the theater with a sullen look on his face and his father, also vested in \u201cKick-Ass\u201d branded swag, looking astonished right behind him. One or both of them had clearly just been duped, but seeing that confused, wandering ghost of a boy\u2014he, too, robbed of his innocence, I imagined\u2014was a little bit devastating.
\nPosters hung in cinema lobbies create a dilemma for certain theatergoers: so long as Kick-Ass is around, you can\u2019t take a child to a G-rated movie without exposing them to content\u2014to a word\u2014that would automatically earn any film a PG rating. The same word, the film\u2019s very title, is repeated on billboards, television commercials, merchandise, and, yes, tee-shirts for anyone to see.
\nOn the other hand, far more inappropriate content can be just as readily found on magazine covers in the check-out lanes of grocery stores (the latest issue of Cosmopolitan boasts in bold face \u201cThe 7 Best Orgasm Tricks in the World!\u201d), during beer commercials, and in Miley Cyrus music videos.
\nMoral implications and dubious marketing strategies aside, as an exercise in entertainment and filmmaking efficiency, Kick-Ass, for me, just barely squeaks by as something that can qualify as artistic expression\u2014a crude, violent, absurd, and vulgar artistic expression. The film manages to maintain enough levity in its narrative and luster in its presentation to pass as escapist entertainment\u2014crude, violent, absurd, and vulgar escapist entertainment.
\nIronically, Vaughn\u2019s failure to convince us that Kick-Ass takes place in our reality or any relatable setting is what salvages the film. Had Hit-Girl seemed slightly more human, her indiscretions would have been unequivocally reprehensible. Instead, she is, as is most of Kick-Ass, an outrageous cartoon brought to life.
\nFor this reason, the film is no more offensive, even less offensive, than last year\u2019s eight-times Oscar-nominated film Inglourious Basterds (sporting another lamentable title), in which director Quentin Tarantino wagered his crude, bloodthirsty revenge fantasy on a sensitive historical issue for stronger dramatic impact. By my estimation, that embraces the very definition of exploitation. As does the WE \u201creality\u201d show Little Miss Perfect, parading three and four-year-olds around in their disturbingly skimpy \u201cwow-wear.\u201d Kick-Ass is certainly no more destructive than that.
\nTo be honest, I can\u2019t recall the last time I felt such strong and varied emotions while watching a movie as I did during Kick-Ass. Providing moments of shock, horror, disgust, excitement, intensity, hilarity, and general absurdity, Kick-Ass is a rollercoaster ride\u2014a swift kick in the pants, ahem, in the ass, perhaps.
\nAs a film\u2014as an artistic expression and means of entertainment (for those of the proper age and condition)\u2014I have to give Kick-Ass\u2026
\nAs a greater reflection of morality and decency in our culture, Kick-Ass gives me reason to worry.
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Adam Mehring reviews Kick-Ass the movie and critiques Reallifesuperheroes.org the site.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12371,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[68,510,1291,1417,1624,1743,1787,2182,3012],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3234"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}