Kick-Ass – Movie Review

There is always a little skepticism when you go to see a movie that is based on a book/comic that you really enjoyed.  I always break the worry down into three areas: (i) that the characters won’t look/sound the way you had imagined them, (ii) that the creative team will make massive departures from the source material and “ruin” the story and (iii) if they do change the story for the movie, you’ll be constantly tempted to remind people, “Well, that’s not the way it happened in the book.”

So, with all that baggage I went to see Kick-Ass on a Sunday morning when everyone else was in church.

I really enjoyed this movie and think that the director and cast hit all the important notes from Mark Millar and John Romita, Jr.’s book.  There are only a couple of major deviations from the source material that I’ll discuss below.

The first hour or so of the film is almost 100% faithful to the comic source material.  The main character, Dave Lizewski, is just as awkward and dorky as he was in the comics and his buddies are just as nerdy.  Dave’s life, back story, desire to become a vigilante, budding relationship with the hot girl, first meeting with Big Daddy and Hit Girl are all ripped straight from the comics.