KickAss
My husband and I saw this over the weekend and we both were left feeling something wasn’t right here story-wise. We went in expecting one story, and we came out after seeing another. It wasn’t entirely the trailer’s fault. My husband summed it up by saying he felt he wasn’t allowed to bond or root for the protagonist on purpose so that he (the audience) wouldn’t feel like going out and being a superhero in today’s society. I agree with him. That and seeing an eleven-year old girl beat near to death is a gut-wrenching viewing.
However, from a story perspective, I think I have a different issue with the film. The story isn’t about Kick-Ass, aka Dave, the protagonist. Nor is he a hero of any kind in the story until the end. It’s someone else’s story (Big Daddy and Hit Girl). Kick-ass just happens on to their story and gets dragged along. So here’s the issue. I don’t care about Kick-ass. He lost me back at the tissues in the garbage can. I do care about the little girl who is shot in the chest by her own father. So every time Dave comes on screen, I wonder why I have to watch his story and follow him around. What does Dave add to the film? Do we really need an average teenager to tell us what a superhero is and isn’t?
The only thing Dave adds to the story is realism. He goes into an apartment, planning to tell the ex-boyfriend of the girl he wants, to back off. He brings a crappy taser. He gets his ass kicked and then Hit Girl shows up. Dave is thinking a little pummeling for his girl – no big deal. Hit Girl shows up and kills everyone. Yes, an eleven-year old girl kills the entire bad guy force. This isn’t some glamorized version – Dave watches the scene in true horror. It knocked the tensity of the scene way up and that element of Dave as realism didn’t let the audience enjoy the scene as much as if the movie was pure fantasy and no one really got hurt (wink, wink).
So my question is, was Dave as a protagonist necessary? I understand what he added to the film. He grounded it but that’s just about all he did. Could the story have been written without Dave yet walk that realism line?
What do you think?