4 stars
The incredible averageness of overzealous citizens in costumes matched up against shocking spurts of violence is part of what made 2010’s “Kick-Ass” so alluring in the first place. Now “Kick-Ass 2” http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1650554/ takes all the aspects audiences loved from the first movie and created the next chapter for the real-life superhero.
The plot starts up where the last film left off with Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) trying to kill Kick-Ass (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), a high school classmate who has taken up vigilantism. Mintz-Plasse is hilariously evil, owning every alter-ego and spinning further into his character’s absurd underworld.
Life goes sour for the protagonists when Mindy Macready (Chloë Grace Moretz), a fellow teenage vigilante, decides to give up her superhero life as Hit-Girl, and Kick-Ass is dumped by his girlfriend Katie. Kick-Ass joins up with other ordinary superheroes while Mindy tries to be a normal teenage girl.
Mindy’s struggle to find her true identity is an interesting battle though her trials of fitting in are bland and stereotypical. On the other hand, Kick-Ass’ new superhero friends add the much-needed action to fill the time until Hit-Girl returns. Among the new superheroes is the upstanding Colonel Stars and Stripes played by an almost unrecognizable Jim Carrey, who fills the much-missed eccentric void left by Nicolas Cage in the first movie.
Many deaths later, the moment of truth arrives. Red Mist and his army of supervillains battle against Kick-Ass and his superhero friends. Like most of the movie, the fighting is well-choreographed and a character’s end is never anticlimactic.
“Kick-Ass 2” is side-splittingly funny, artistically entertaining and violently satisfying. It’s what every kid reading comic books in their dorm room would look forward to.
— Amanda Hayes
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