Kick-Ass 2 – Review

New production studio, new writer, new director, same great product? Hmmmm… up for debate I suppose.

Dave (Taylor-Johnson) and Mindy (Moretz) are back, a few years later and now at the same high school. Dave has given up heroism and Hit Girl still crushes bad guy spines, skipping school to take care of business. Kick-Ass isn’t needed anymore; he inspired tons of new heroes.

Dave considers a Kick-Ass sequel however, and looks for his costume. Eventually he asks to be the Robin to Mindy’s Batman. She is admittedly lonely and decides to start training him. Maybe it’s even time to consider a whole super hero team! Bring on Colonel Stars and Stripes (Carrey), Eisenhower (Cinna); Night Bitch (Booth) and Dr. Gravity (Faison).

Meanwhile, Chris D’Amico (Mintz-Plasse) obsesses over Kick-Ass, who blew up his father with a bazooka. He evolves from his super hero Red Mist into a new persona, The Mother Fucker. This made sense to him after he went super-insano from making a critical tanning machine error which led to further tragedy. He sees it as density however, and steps his villain came up, chaos ensuing.

Hit Girl: Good. The rest: Okay. Some of the new cast and heroes are welcome, but the overall vibe of this movie is a bit less fun than the first. There is a big drop from the first script’s pacing and tonal balance, and it comes with a replacement Todd and Marcus Williams (though Chestnut does a good job). There is also virtually no Katie.

For better or worse, this movie tries to be in your face like the first one, but I felt a lesser emotional connection to the characters in this sequel. The cast overall though is not the problem, and there is still some entertainment value to be found, just set your expectations a few rungs lower than the original.