I am addressing this blog to that staunchest critic of graphic novel to film adaptations... DB.
I have finally seen 'Kick Ass' the movie - having read the Graphic Novel (GN let's call it) so I did it in the right order and everything. It took me a long time to see it because Lovefilm, my usual provider of filmic entertainment, has had some kind of spat with paramount or someone so you can't get some films from them now.
So I had to lay out my fiver and buy this DVD.
I believe DB considers it possibly the worst film he's ever seen - so presumably as bad adaptations of graphic novels go it must be right up there.... yes?
Well... I liked it. But then I also liked those other pariahs of the DB universe : 'Watchmen' (the movie) and 'V for Vendetta' (the movie).
The first thing you notice about Kick Ass the film is it is much lighter than the GN - both in tone and literally. So to be honest I can see why that might be annoying to fans of the GN - it doesn't capture the darkness and griminess of the original. The humour seems less black - although it is still funny and has elements of humour the GN doesn't have. It veers away towards becoming a comedy piece though.
Hit Girl - who is quite obviously the star of the piece in both versions - comes across as less abused in the film. A little girl who has been turned into a killing machine? The GN quite rightly asserts that this is not a morally justifiable situation - although it whispers 'yeah, but isn't it awesome?'
The moment Hit Girl asks Kick Ass for a hug because... well I won't blow the plot (DB knows the moment I am talking about) but that moment of vulnerability has been removed - I would have liked to have seen it in. As it is, the ending of the film seems a little bit too air-punching - in the usual Hollywood way.
Also Big Daddy should be a lonely fantasist - rather like Kick Ass himself. That's a central ironic device which has also been sadly removed.
BUT - I did say I liked the film didn't I?!
Yes - the content of the original is largely preserved and I do think it captures the spirit of it.
Hit Girl's first line 'okay you cunts...' is faithfully rendered and it provides a beautifully transgressive moment of cinema. This just shouldn't be happening - but in Art anything is possible.
This touches on the controversy - of both versions, but I suppose more keenly in the film because Hit Girl is obviously played by an actual little girl (and arguably, as I said, the intrinsic wrongness of her relationship with her father is played down in the film),
Let us not be so naive as to assume that a film like this would be made without protecting the actress and looking after her. The controversy reminds me of the fuss over Linda Blair and 'The Exorcist'. For goodness sake - there are ways to do these things in the movies. So won't somebody please think of the children? I'm sure someone did.
Also, we live in a world in which children are frequently sexualised and also, in some cultures, given guns and taught to kill. Art will reflect that. In fact 20th / 21st Century art has most reflected advertising, I would argue - the dominant mindset and vocabulary of the Western world. Kick Ass, in both versions, makes a genuine comment about this fast, intellectually bankrupt imagery.
It makes that point directly because of Hit Girl - she is the axis.
By putting a child in that situation questions are asked - a reaction is demanded. It occurs to me that the violent situations seem more wrong because a child is involved... but does that mean we condone violence among 'consenting' adults? It is the role of Art to ask these questions - the answers must come from the viewer.
On a less cranial level I have to say - and I challenge DB to refute - that the scene in which Hit Girl kicks the fucking shit to the banana split theme tune just has to be awesome in every universe I can conceive.
Yes - awesome. That Americanism is required to describe Kick Ass the graphic novel... and the film.
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