Kick-Ass - Dare You To Be Good?

 (2010) ★★★★☆

First off, don't get too serious about it you know. It's just a comic-book movie like 'Sin City', 'Wanted', '300' and stuff, meaning it'd be a bit exaggerated, surreal, silly and bloody sometimes, but it does convey some sort of message: the price's big for being a good man, or a superhero without any powers like Kick-Ass.

Dave (Aaron Johnson) often wonders why nobody wants to be a superhero while everybody likes to seek help from one. With a 'someone's gotta do it, why not me?' attitude, he orders a green-condom-like costume, promotes himself at Myspace as Kick-Ass and goes out to fight crimes. Of course, with no powers or weapons, his first act fails terribly, and he ends up pretty bad in the hospital. He however, throws himself in that stupid costume again as soon as he recovers. One night, he bumps into three assholes beating up a fella. He plucks up his courage and decides not to back down anymore. Someone shoots a clip of Kick-Ass kicking ass and puts it on YouTube. And all of a sudden, Kick-Ass becomes a phenomenon in town. Then there are Big Daddy (Nicholas Cage) and Hit-Girl (Chloe Moretz), and the scores between them and the local crime boss Frank (Mark Strong). Things, therefore, get pretty brutal and messy, and unexpectedly sad.

Some may argue how Hit-Girl could be so cool and ruthless when killing people (even though they're bad guys) and facing something rough. Well, first, like I said, this is a comic-book adaptation. Second, how could you expect a girl to learn to be merciful in a world where men would just turn a blind eye to injustice, hit and run, beat the shit out of you and shoot you dead with no reason and penitence at all? Don't you wanna punish the bad? I guess you do, but you just lack guts to do so.

'With no power comes with no responsibility, except that wasn't true.' Yeah, we're all in part of something. We're all responsible for a better world. People wonder why there ain't enough good guys around. The fact is, we all wanna kick ass but don't wanna get ass kicked. So instead, you should wonder if you're already a good man. A world filled with good souls is something we all like to see. The question is, dare you to be one first?