Kick-Ass (film)

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Movie
German title Kick-ass
Original title Kick-ass
Kick-Ass.png
Country of production UK , USA
original language English
Publishing year 2010
length 117 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Matthew Vaughn
script Matthew Vaughn,
Jane Goldman
production Matthew Vaughn,
Brad Pitt ,
Kris Thykier,
Adam Bohling,
Tarquin Pack,
David Reid
music John Murphy ,
Henry Jackman ,
Marius de Vries ,
Ilan Eshkeri
camera Ben Davis
cut Pietro Scalia ,
Jon Harris ,
Eddie Hamilton
occupation
synchronization
chronology

Successor  →
Kick-Ass 2

Kick-Ass is a 2010 British - American film directed by Matthew Vaughn based on Mark Millar 's comic book of the same name . The superhero comedy provides a simple, vulnerable teenager and comic - Nerd at the center, which despite the lack of superpowers tried as a superhero to fight called "Kick-Ass" the crime. He quickly becomes a celebrity, but this also makes other avengers and criminals aware of him.

The film premiered on March 12, 2010 at the South by Southwest Film Festival in the United States and was released in German cinemas on April 22, 2010.

action

Dave Lizewski is a normal kid in his high school until he decides to become a superhero . He buys a green wetsuit with a mask on eBay , calls himself "Kick-Ass" and uses batons and a taser as weapons - but he has no superpowers. Dave's first assignment ends in a fiasco: He is beaten up by two petty criminals, stabbed and hit by a car. Dave ends up in the hospital, but he doesn't let that discourage him. Because of his injuries, he is given metal implants and a large part of his nerve endings no longer work, which makes him less sensitive to pain.

After his recovery, Dave goes back on patrol. When he gets involved in a gang brawl and saves the individual persecuted from his three opponents, his act is filmed by several gawkers and the video is published on YouTube . The very next day, Kick-Ass became a celebrity, and he received a lot of fan mail in his MySpace account. Meanwhile, Dave befriends his school crush Katie Deauxma, who thinks he's gay . When she tells him one day about a drug addict named Rasul who is molesting her, Dave sees this as his chance to land with her and decides to reprimand Rasul.

Besides Dave, there are two other people who fight crime in costume, especially the local drug lord Frank D'Amico. A former police officer named Damon Macready was innocently imprisoned by D'Amico eleven years ago. His heavily pregnant wife then committed suicide out of desperation, and her unborn baby survived. Upon his release, Macready trained himself and his daughter Mindy to fight D'Amico, and both assumed the costumed identities of Big Daddy and Hit-Girl. You become aware of Kick-Ass and decide to keep an eye on him. When Dave tries to keep Rasul away from Katie, he is attacked by him and his thugs, but Hit-Girl rushes to his aid and kills all the enemies in the apartment. Then she and her father go to see Dave, whom they have tracked down through his MySpace account, and offer him their partnership.

However, Rasul and his people worked as D'Amicos dealers . D'Amico then blames Kick-Ass for the disruptions in his organization and orders it to be eliminated. An attempted murder, perpetrated by D'Amico himself, turns out to be a failure because he "only" shot an actor in a kick-ass costume on the way to a children's birthday party. D'Amico's son Chris, a schoolmate of Dave's, suggests another method: Chris poses as the new superhero "Red Mist" and contacts Dave to ambush him. However, Big Daddy gets ahead of him and takes care of D'Amico's henchmen. With a hidden camera that Chris has placed in advance, the real culprit is revealed, and since Kick-Ass mentioned to Chris that he knows Big Daddy, D'Amico decides to catch Big Daddy on him.

Meanwhile, Dave realizes the danger he is in and tries to stop. He appears one last time as Kick-Ass in front of Katie and tells her the truth, after which she, already a fan of Kick-Ass, becomes his girlfriend. Eventually Dave is contacted by Red Mist, who claims the Mafia is after them. Dave arranges a meeting with Big Daddy and Hit-Girl. Hardly there, Red Mist shows its true colors: He shoots down hit girls, and Dave and Big Daddy are captured by D'Amicos thugs. D'Amico decides to publicly unmask the two in a live performance and torture them to death as a warning to other “would-be superheroes”. Hit girl, who survived Chris' attack thanks to her bulletproof vest , manages to intervene, but cannot prevent her father from dying as a result of his injuries. Thereupon she decides to carry out his work of revenge to the end. Dave, who is concerned about her, tries to dissuade her at first, but joins her out of guilt about her father's death.

Hit girl invades D'Amicos residence and fights her way through his men. When she gets into trouble, she is rescued by Kick-Ass, who uses a jet pack and two built-in Gatlings that her father had bought shortly before to kill the remaining gangsters. The two father and son confront D'Amico. While Dave and Chris knock each other out, Frank D'Amico turns out to be a tough opponent for Hit-Girl despite their training. Just as he is about to shoot her, Dave comes to and kills D'Amico with a bazooka . Then he flies away with Hit-Girl before Chris can wake up again and continue the fight.

With D'Amicos death, Hit-Girl's task is over. Dave and Mindy both officially introduce themselves in their secret identities , and Mindy begins a completely normal life at Dave's school, as the foster child of her father's former police colleague. Kick-Ass hasn't lost its popularity despite its retreat, and many other people are now trying their hand at superheroes. Chris, on the other hand, who seeks revenge for his father, declares war on the new hero population as a super villain.

Film references

There are a number of comic and comic film references. Big Daddy speaks like Adam West's version of Batman , Red Mist at the end quotes the Joker (from Tim Burton's Batman ) with the words "Wait till they get a load of me" and describes him as a "great man" (as much as " great ”or“ great man ”). Dave's statement "with no strength comes no responsibility" is an allusion to Spider-Man's "With great strength comes great responsibility". In the comic shop you can see an Avengers and Hellboy posters, a Watchmen figure and various other comics. During the course of the film, Kick-Ass comics are sold in the store , using the original comic.

Shortly after Dave was admitted to the hospital, several x-rays of his broken bones , which were treated with wires and nails , were put together to form an overall picture. Dave comments: “That’s crazy! I look like Wolverine ! ”This refers to Wolverine's Adamantium skeleton.

One scene shows a crook who is handcuffed to the steering wheel of a yellow Range Rover and is killed in a scrap press . In Layer Cake , an actor under the role name Cody continues in a yellow Range Rover and is played in both cases by actor Dexter Fletcher . Director Matthew Vaughn called this scene the line under Layer Cake .

Dave imitates Robert De Niro from Taxi Driver in front of the mirror , and Frank D'Amico's bodyguard is happy to finally be able to say the famous phrase “Say hello to my little friend” from Scarface when he hit the bazooka on Hit-Girl directs. In addition, reference is made directly to Lost and Alles Betty! and Family Guy mentioned. Marty speaks of "One Night in Spider-Man ", a reference to the sextape One Night in Paris .

production

The comic as a film template

The film Kick-Ass is based on the eight-part comic miniseries of the same name by British comic author Mark Millar , whose comic Wanted had previously been successfully filmed . Since the film was produced during the creation of the comic, the production of the comic and film are closely related.

Creation of the comic script

Millar began drafting the Kick-Ass story around 2006 . He originally planned a comic called Kick-Ass about Big Daddy and Hit-Girl. However, he found it difficult to identify with these characters, so he put the concept aside for a few months. At the beginning of 2007 he wrote the basis for an autobiographical comic, with the identification figure Dave Lizewski . Parallels between Mark Millar and Dave are that Millar was as passionate about comics as Dave was, his mother also died early and he then lived alone with his father. At the age of 14, Millar and his friend Paul James Downie, to whom the Kick-Ass comic is dedicated , wanted to become superheroes. The two picked up superhero names and costumes, learned karate and spent about a year on patrol in their home town of Glasgow . While working on the autobiographical project, Millar realized that the two comics were a match. So he combined both ideas into a comic and wrote the first version for the scripts of the first four editions in one piece and already had an idea for the basic story of the remaining four editions.

Millar's basic idea was to let the comic play in our reality, where superheroes are used for entertainment. Other comics such as Batman , Iron Man or Spider-Man followed the trend of moving the comic world further and further into reality. But in these comics, protagonists receive superpowers or an inexhaustible wealth from which they can afford their technical equipment. Millar also said that the puberty of protagonists like Peter Parker, so Spider-Man, was not portrayed realistically. Kick-Ass should therefore be even more realistic: A simple, pubescent, vulnerable comic book nerd who has no superpowers and does not go down well with girls, tries to become a superhero. He was then stabbed on patrol and run over by a car.

Millar wrote the comic miniseries for Icon Comics . The Marvel - Imprint Icon Comics was founded to keep outstanding comic inventors at Marvel by giving them the opportunity to publish on the creator-owned principle, which means that the works remain the property of the inventors. However, all marketing is with the author and the comic is not promoted by Marvel .

Script development

Mark Millar wanted to film the comic and came into contact with Matthew Vaughn through his old friend Jonathan Ross and his wife Jane Goldman in the late summer of 2007 . The two hit it off right away. After a first meeting at the premiere of Der Sternwanderer , they both wanted to work on a film together. In October 2007, Millar offered the Comic Kick-Ass as a possible project because he owned its rights. At that time the first two scripts were not quite finished and no panel was drawn.

Matthew Vaughn was delighted with the script of the comic. In an initial meeting, Vaughn and Millar worked out the story of the film together. Vaughn knew the rough plot of the comic and worked out the entire script of the film in joint meetings with Millar. Vaughn then wrote the script while Millar worked on the comic script , and overtook him in the process. The first four comic scripts and the basic structure of the following four scripts formed the basis for the script. While comic authors normally only have a minimal influence on the implementation of a film, Mark Millar, who is listed as executive producer alongside John Romita Jr. in the credits , continued to work on the film's script with Matthew Vaughn after the plot of the comic had been worked out out.

Vaughn wrote the 15-page first draft of the script with a focus on structure and story, while Jane Goldman, as with Der Sternwanderer , added further scenes, dialogues and characterization to the script as a co-scriptwriter and edited the script for the mass audience. Goldman said the reason they worked so well was that Vaughn thought in pictures and they in words. While Millar was still working on the comic script, the script was completed on August 28, 2008.

Completion of the comic

John Romita Jr. was responsible for the drawings of the comic . Millar and Romita have already worked together successfully in Wolverine : Enemy of the State and appreciate each other very much. Kick-Ass was originally supposed to appear monthly, but since Millar attached great importance to quality and Romita created many drawings for the film, this was not possible. The drawings for the film included 50 to 60 mug shots and an animated comic sequence ("motion comic"), which clarifies the origins of big daddies and hit girls.

Because of their trust in the project, Millar and Romita worked for the Imprint Icon Comics without any advance payment from Marvel , so that they could only produce the comic under their own responsibility ("creator owned"). So they didn't get any money for script and drawings for more than a year. For Romita, Kick-Ass is an extraordinary work due to the extreme depictions of violence; he describes Kick-Ass as extremely brutal as he had never drawn before. Romita knew from the start that the comic would get an R rating because of the violence . In the comic world, Kick-Ass became a huge hit. The orders for the first edition exceeded all expectations. Most of the editions were published over 100,000. This makes Kick-Ass the most successful non-franchise series in the last ten years.

Showing rights

When the final script was sent to various studios in late August 2008, the film quickly met with unexpected rejection. The biggest criticism of the film was Hit-Girl, an eleven-year-old who causes bloodbaths. The studios didn't think the audience wanted to see such a heroine. Some studios were interested in the concept, but wanted a PG-13 movie without a hit girl. Other production companies called for making Hit-Girl older. Vaughn was also warned that such a film would not get theatrical distribution.

Vaughn then decided to shoot Kick-Ass independently. With 28 million US dollars should Kick-Ass is a relatively expensive independent film are still the budget using private investors as well as the production company was Brad Pitt , Plan B Entertainment , along quickly, a large part also contributed Vaughn with his production company Marv Films in, so that the Shooting of the film could begin in September 2008.

In July of the following year , four short clips of the film were shown at San Diego Comic-Con , a prestigious annual comic book fair. Due to the exuberant reactions of the audience, various Hollywood studios became aware of the film again. After the finished film was shown, a competition broke out between the major distributors for the distribution rights for Kick-Ass . From this Lions Gate Entertainment and Universal emerged successfully: Lions Gate acquired the US rights to the film for 15 million US dollars, Universal the international rights for 45 million US dollars.

Filming

Shooting began just one month after the script was completed on September 28, 2008 and ended after about seven months on April 23, 2009. Outdoor shots were filmed mainly in London and Canada , in Toronto and Hamilton . Studio recordings were made in Great Britain at Elstree Studios ( Borehamwood , Hertfordshire ) and Pinewood Studios ( Iver Heath , Buckinghamshire ) and at CineSpace Film Studios in Toronto. Originally about 100 visual effects were planned for the film . Since the budget was tight and CGI shots are cheaper than shooting on the original location, this resulted in around 820 CGI shots. For comparison: I, Robot from 2004 had 290 CGI shots. Parts of the film, such as the scenes that take place on the roofs of New York , were shot exclusively with green screens. Only the background was shot in New York by a special effects team.

Film music

Overall, Vaughn described the film music as very difficult, it dragged on for eight months, and much of the music was written in the last week. Vaughn attaches great importance to film music and since he is very musically gifted, he was very involved in the development process of the film music.

Score

Track list
  1. The Armenian Superhero - 1:59 ( Henry Jackman , Marius de Vries )
  2. Stand Up - 3:32 ( The Prodigy )
  3. Forcefield - 1:05 (Marius de Vries)
  4. Watching - 1:01 (Henry Jackman)
  5. Man in the Mirror - 1:08 (Henry Jackman)
  6. A Punch In The Chest - 0:45 (Marius de Vries)
  7. Roof Jump - 1:31 ( Ilan Eshkeri , Marius de Vries)
  8. Time to Engage - 0:26 (Henry Jackman)
  9. Stabbing Morphine - 1:56 ( Liam Howlett , Marius de Vries)
  10. I'm Kick Ass - 1:16 (Henry Jackman)
  11. Famous - 2:22 (Henry Jackman, Ilan Eshkeri, John Murphy , Marius de Vries)
  12. A Friend Like You - 0:43 (Marius de Vries)
  13. Walk to Rasul’s - 0:58 ( Danny Elfman )
  14. Trick or Treat? - 2:43 (Ilan Eshkeri, Marius de Vries)
  15. Leaving Rasul’s - 1:18 (John Murphy)
  16. Hit Girl & Big Daddy - 2:39 (Ilan Eshkeri, John Murphy, Marius de Vries)
  17. Damon & Marcus Comic Book - 3:24 (Henry Jackman, John Murphy)
  18. I Miss You Both - 1:40 (Ilan Eshkeri, John Murphy)
  19. Hunting Kick Ass - 1:04 (Henry Jackman)
  20. MistMobile - 1:40 (Henry Jackman)
  21. Big Daddy Kills - 2:50 (Henry Jackman, John Murphy)
  22. One Last Time - 0:57 (Marius de Vries)
  23. Sleepover - 1:57 (Marius de Vries)
  24. To Brooklyn Bridge - 1:42 (Marius de Vries)
  25. Safehouse / Ambush - 2:34 (John Murphy)
  26. Showtime Pt. 2 (It's Only the End of the World) - 2:25 (John Murphy)
  27. Nightvision - 1:57 (John Murphy)
  28. Strobe (Adagio in D Minor) - 2:02 (John Murphy)
  29. Big Daddy Dies - 1:33 (Henry Jackman, John Murphy)
  30. Hit Girl Drives Home - 1:42 (John Murphy)
  31. Marshmallows - 1:12 (Henry Jackman, John Murphy)
  32. Choose Your Weapon - 1:26 (Ilan Eshkeri)
  33. You Got Five Minutes - 0:35 (Marius de Vries)
  34. No Power, No Responsibility - 1:16 (Henry Jackman)
  35. The Corridor - 1:16 (John Murphy)
  36. Kitchen Stand Off - 1:19 (Ilan Eshkeri, John Murphy)
  37. The Fight - 3:12 (Henry Jackman, Ilan Eshkeri, John Murphy, Marius de Vries)
  38. Flying Home - 1:49 (Henry Jackman, Ilan Eshkeri, John Murphy, Marius de Vries)
  39. True Identity - 1:39 (Henry Jackman)

The composed film music , the score, was composed by the British John Murphy , Henry Jackman , Marius de Vries and Ilan Eshkeri . The fact that four composers were mainly responsible for the film music is very unusual, but according to Murphy it is due to the different genres of the film. On the one hand, the film is a simple high school love story with pop songs. On the other hand, there are shocking action scenes that require a different type of film music. The film's statement that you don't need superpowers to be a superhero also influenced the score. This could therefore not be covered by a conventional score or an ordinary soundtrack. Regardless of this, according to Jackman, the composed film music is not particularly outstanding, but just does its job, it supports the film on an acoustic level.

Since the composers had different emphases, the collaboration worked well without the composers replacing each other. Ilan Eshkeri mainly took care of the conventional score. John Murphy contributed punk songs and Marius de Vries mixed in the pop music. Henry Jackman composed heroic superhero music. There are pieces on the film music that several composers wrote or that merge, for example Roof Jump begins classically as a work by Ilan Eshkeri and then merges into Marius de Vrie's work, which is a bit more poppy.

John Murphy and Ilan Eshkeri had previously worked with Vaughn; Murphy on Jack, Dame, König, grass and Snatch - pigs and diamonds produced by Vaughn, and Eshkeri on Layer Cake and Der Sternwanderer , directed by Vaughn. After working with Vaughn for the first time on Kick-Ass , Henry Jackman composed the score for his film X-Men: First Decision .

Influences

The score is influenced by a wide variety of influences, especially John Williams , the composer of scores such as Superman and Indiana Jones . Other influences come from Batman films , mainly from The Dark Knight , on whose film music Jackman worked. Batman composer Danny Elfman also wrote a track for the film, Walk To Rasul’s . Elfman retained the rights to the play, but approved its use in the film. Vaughn's influences from the 80s and 70s and their punk rock were very important in the film .


Q: 1/4 = 76 M: 4/4 L: 1/4 eeff | ^ ccdd |
Big Daddy motif in one of the many variations
Motifs

The main motif of the character Kick-Ass, which Henry Jackman wrote, was supposed to be music in the John Williams style, which becomes more modern as the film progresses. This manifests itself, for example, in the fact that less orchestral music is used in the motif over time. At the end of the film, when the kick ass and hit girl fly away with the jet pack, the theme has become a modern superhero melody.

Big Daddy's theme was composed by John Murphy. The motif, which consists of four notes, also goes through variations. It was already heard in the film Sunshine under the title Adagio in D-minor . The track Big Daddy Kills was also used as In The House, In A Heartbeat in the film 28 Days Later .

production

The score was interpreted by the London Metropolitan Orchestra and Metro Voices and produced by Steve McLaughlin. The score was recorded at Abbey Road Studios , Air Studios and Angel Studios . On May 28, 2010 the film music was released under the title Kick-Ass: The Score as an MP3 album and under the title Music From The Motion Picture Score as a CD. The publication consists of 39 titles with a total length of 1:06:33.

Soundtrack

Track list
  1. Stand Up - 5:09 ( The Prodigy )
  2. Kick-Ass - 3:12 ( Mika vs. RedOne )
  3. Can't Go Back - 3:46 ( Primal Scream )
  4. There's a Pot a Brewin - 3:13 ( The Little Ones )
  5. Omen - 3:55 ( The Prodigy )
  6. Make Me Wanna Die - 3:55 ( The Pretty Reckless )
  7. Banana Splits - 2:04 ( The Dickies )
  8. Starry Eyed - 2:58 ( Ellie Goulding )
  9. This Town Ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us - 3:03 ( Sparks )
  10. We're All in Love - 4:50 ( New York Dolls )
  11. Bongo Song - 5:01 ( Zongamin )
  12. Per Qualche Dollaro In Piu - 2:53 ( Ennio Morricone )
  13. Bad Reputation - 2:56 ( The Hit Girls )
  14. An American Trilogy - 4:31 ( Elvis Presley )

The film's soundtrack was released on March 29, 2010 in the UK on Polydor , a sub-label of Universal Music Group, under the title Kick-Ass: Music From The Motion Picture . In the US, the album was released a day later as an MP3 download on iTunes . On April 23, 2010 the album was released in Germany.

The soundtrack album contains 14 tracks with a total length of 51:26, these are encompassed by quotes from the characters from the film.

The range of songs ranges from punk rock ( The Dickies , New York Dolls ) to pop ( Sparks , The Prodigy , Primal Scream , Ellie Goulding ) to pieces by Elvis Presley and even Ennio Morricone . The band The Prodigy worked on both the soundtrack and the score. In addition to the titles Stand Up and Omen , which appeared on the soundtrack, Liam Howlett , the head of the band, worked with Marius de Vries on the title Stabbing-Morphine , which is part of the film music.

The title track "Kick-Ass (We Are Young)" was sung by Mika and produced by RedOne . Mika saw the unfinished film Kick-Ass and wrote the song together with Jodi Marr in two days.

The single's music video shows Mika left helpless in an alley after he was beaten up. He starts singing and while doing so he finds a kick-ass comic . Inspired by this, he also wants to become a superhero, runs on the roof of a house and sings his song about the New York skyline . The music video also shows excerpts from Kick-Ass .

One song that can be heard in the film but is not on the soundtrack is Crazy by Gnarls Barkley . This song is running in "Mist Mobile" while Kick-Ass and Red Mist around town cruising . This scene was improvised and was not originally intended to be part of the film. Vaughn told the two to move to the music. The two heard Crazy from the iPod. Aaron Johnson is a trained dancer and since Vaughn liked the scene, it was kept. The song "Bad Reputation" is sung by Joan Jett in the film . On the soundtrack, however, the song is interpreted by a band called "The Hit Girls" .

synchronization

The German synchronization was for a dialogue book and the dialogue director of Kim Hasper on behalf of Berliner Synchron company RC Production .

role actor German speakers
Dave Lizewski / Kick-Ass Aaron Johnson Ricardo Richter
Damon Macready / Big Daddy Nicolas Cage Martin Keßler
Mindy Macready / Hit Girl Chloë Moretz Luisa Wietzorek
Katie Deauxma Lyndsy Fonseca Julia Meynen
Christopher "Chris" D'Amico / Red Mist Christopher Mintz-Plasse Hannes Maurer
Frank D'Amico Mark Strong Erich Rauker
Marty Clark Duke Patrick Baehr
Todd Evan Peters Julius Jellinek

reception

Box office earnings and finances

The production cost of the film was around 28 million US dollars, a comparatively small budget for a comic book adaptation. The US rights to the film were sold to Lionsgate for $ 15 million and the worldwide rights for $ 45 million. Lionsgate spent between $ 25 million and $ 30 million to market the film.

'' Kick-Ass did not start as successfully as expected in Great Britain , Australia and New Zealand , so it was initially expected that the first place in the US box office, which is important for marketing, would not be attainable on the opening weekend . For '' Kick-Ass, for example, revenues were initially 19.75 million US dollars , while for How To Train Your Dragon , which had already been in the cinema for 3 weeks, 20 million US dollars were accepted. Ultimately, Kick-Ass was $ 19.8 million but $ 170,000 before Taming Dragons Made Easy , making it the most successful film of the weekend. Overall, the film achieved gross revenues of 48.1 million US dollars in the United States with over six million viewers.

The film was released in over 50 countries and grossed $ 101.6 million worldwide. In Germany, with almost 200,000 visitors, the film took in 1,684,000 US dollars (fourth place this week in the German cinema charts), and in Austria 293,000 US dollars (third place in the Austrian cinema charts).

Despite the relatively good box office results, the film initially did not meet the expectations placed on it, as Kick-Ass was ascribed great potential because the film had become media hype and the reviews were largely positive. The small demographic target group was suspected as a possible cause for the weak start, as the comic book adaptation received an R rating . Another reason for this could be black copies of the film, as Kick-Ass placed seventh in the list of the “Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of All Time” with over 15 million illegal downloads in 2011. The film only became a great financial success when it was released on DVD and Blu-ray .

Reviews

The film was received mostly positively. Rotten Tomatoes got a 76% positive rating based on 246 reviews. Metacritic gives a Metascore of 66/100 based on 38 reviews.

“When Hit-Girl appears on the screen and sharpens her butterfly knife, the independently produced 'Kick-Ass' fulfills its title promise to the full satisfaction and goes straight to the conservative Hollywood studio. The promising young killer takes a longer break, but sometimes creeps in for one or the other length. "

- Christoph Petersen : film starts

“Kick-Ass is a lot of fun. Sympathetic actors, right down to the supporting roles, a weird story and many nerdy allusions make this somewhat different comic film adaptation - despite some lengths in the first act - into a fast-paced and very funny film that can already come up with one or the other WTF scene. Despite all the praise, the fact that the film still falls short of its potential cannot be denied and a shame. Because where the comic remains at the meta level until the end and satirically viciously targeting and questioning the media, network world, superhero films and geeks, the film succumbs - which without necessity abandons some of the effective plot structures of the comic and is simpler, less smart told - in the last act of the same transfiguration as its protagonists. "

- Oliver Lysiak : The Five Film Friends

In the meantime, well-known critical voices formed both in Germany and in the United States, their country of origin, who were particularly offended by what they considered to be the non-judgmental or even glorifying depiction of violence towards the end of the film.

“At the beginning, 'Kick Ass' seems like a malicious but original superhero satire, fun that doesn't take itself seriously, colorful and loud and fast. With the increasing fetishization of the eleven-year-old killer, however, the whole thing changes over time from a nasty and charming cartoon to a cynical intoxication. The film does not keep up the mocking distance between the original and the main characters - it gradually declares the little one an honorable heroine, who is bloodthirsty but who fights for the good out of deep conviction. [...] And with the urge to always increase the level of violence a bit, the finale becomes a loud but dull bloodlust, a glorified heroine saga. "

- Daniel Sander : Spiegel Online

"A comic adaptation that soon takes back its self-reflective gesture in favor of conventional genre patterns and drastic battle choreographies and wastes the chance to cast a critical, ironic look at its role models."

"Should I speak freely from the liver or should I pretend to be cool? Am I a philistine if I find 'Kick-Ass' morally reprehensible, or have I simply missed something important? Let's say you're a fan of the comics and also think this film does them justice. Then you should know that I am not the least bit interested in the world you live in. A film camera records everything that happens in front of its lens. In this case, it's an eleven-year-old who serves up a fatal blood bath and is almost beaten to death by an adult shortly afterwards. Blood Everywhere: Now explain the context to me. [...] I have not escaped the fact that this is supposed to be satire, but satire on what? "

The independent jury of the German Film and Media Assessment awarded the film an outstanding film with the rating "valuable", but also pointed out the violence in the film:

“The green and yellow superhero outfit turns the neglected student nerd into the acclaimed icon Kick-Ass. Soon there are other action heroes like Hit Girl, Red Mist and Big Daddy around Dave, but not all of them mean well with him. What begins here in the sense of a brightly colored high school comedy soon becomes a tough action flick with absurd humor, the fans and lovers of over-the-top comic films with a fantasy world of allusions, (film) quotes and exaggerated excesses of violence with martial arts. Elements can inspire. Director Matthew Vaughn ironizes the genre to the same extent as he pushes boundaries and sets new standards. Quickly cut, aesthetically polished and full of modern pop myths beyond reality. A film that knows how to polarize - for a mature audience! "

Awards

Tabular overview of awards and nominations
year Award For category result
2010 Teen Choice Award Kick-ass Action adventure Nominated
Nicolas Cage Action Adventure Actor
Christopher Mintz-Plasse Villain
Chloë Moretz Breakout Female
Aaron Taylor-Johnson Breakout times
2010 Scream Award Kick-ass Best comic book movie Won
Chloë Moretz Best Breakout Performance - Female
15 more Different categories Nominated
2010 European film award Kick-ass European audience award Nominated
2010 British Independent Film Award Kick-ass Best British Independent Film Nominated
Matthew Vaughn & Jane Goldman Best screenplay
Matthew Vaughn Best Director
2011 MTV Movie Awards Chloë Moretz Best breakout star Won
Chloë Moretz & Mark Strong Best fight Nominated
2011 People's Choice Award Kick-ass Action movie Nominated
2011 Empire Award Kick-ass Best British Film Won
Chloë Moretz Best newcomer
Matthew Vaughn Best Director Nominated
Aaron Johnson Best Actor
Kick-ass Best film
Kick-ass Best Sci-Fi / Fantasy
2011 Saturn Award Kick-ass Best horror / thriller film Nominated

distribution

Kick-Ass reached first place on the DVD, Blu-ray and Digital Charts in the United States in August 2010, making it one of Lionsgate Home Entertainment's most successful films . In the United States, over 1.1 million DVDs have been sold for over $ 22.7 million in revenue. One million Blu-ray discs had been sold by the end of 2010, which is close to DVD sales and also means revenues of over $ 20 million.

The film was released in Germany on September 16, 2010 by Universal Pictures Germany on DVD and Blu-ray . The Blu-ray is also available as a SteelBook .

In addition to the film, the DVD contains:

The Blu-ray also contains:

  • A 2-hour making-of , which documents the development process of the film in detail
  • Exclusive drawings, storyboards, etc.

continuation

Mark Millar, creator of the original comic, announced a sequel to the story because of its success. In April 2010, director Vaughn indicated the possibility of a continuation of the film, but indicated that this was not a firmly established deal at the time.

On May 5, 2010, Millar announced a film sequel that was actually in the works, filming will begin in the summer of 2011 and which should hit theaters in 2012. You should lean on the template of the sequel comic and particularly deal with the development of Hit-Girl and Red Mist. The title of the sequel should be Kick-Ass 2 : Balls to the Wall . Millar confirmed this announcement at the end of August 2010, due to the strong DVD and Blu-ray sales.

In May 2012 it was announced that Universal was in talks with the cast to produce the film from August 2012. The script for the second part was written by Jeff Wadlow , who will also direct. Vaughn, prevented from working on the sequel to X-Men: First Choice , will serve as co-writer and producer. The shooting has been running since mid-September 2012. The cinema release of Kick-Ass 2 in German-speaking countries took place on August 15, 2013.

literature

  • Mark Millar: Kick-Ass: Creating the Comic, Making the Movie . Titan Books, London 2010, ISBN 1-84856-409-0 (English).

template

Review mirror

positive

Rather positive

Mixed

Rather negative

negative

Web links

Commons : Kick-Ass  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b Release certificate for Kick-Ass . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry, July 2010 (PDF; test number: 122 031 V).
  2. a b c d e f g h i j Millar: Kick-Ass: Creating the Comic, Making the Movie . 2010.
  3. a b c d Chris Hewitt: KICK-ASS. (DOC; 4.87 MB) Production Notes. (No longer available online.) In: lionsgatepublicity.com. Lions Gate , April 8, 2010; archived from the original on February 2, 2015 ; Retrieved July 10, 2011 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / lionsgatepublicity-archive.com
  4. Comic book author Mark Millar: I like problem solvers with ratchets. In: Spiegel Online . September 26, 2010, accessed May 5, 2015 .
  5. Kick-Ass. In: comicbookdb.com. Comic Book DB, 2008, accessed June 19, 2011 .
  6. a b Angelika Unterholzner: Kick-Ass. (PDF) Materials No 30. In: filmABC.at. Federal Ministry for Education, Art and Culture , June 30, 2010, p. 13 , accessed on June 19, 2011 .
  7. Mark Millar, John Romita (Illustrator): Kick-Ass . No. 1 . Icon Comics, February 27, 2008 (English, afterword).
  8. "A New Kind of Superhero: The Making Of Kick-Ass: Pushing the Limits" , Blu-ray Kick-Ass
  9. Mark Millar. Comic Book DB, accessed November 22, 2011 .
  10. ^ J. Gavin Paul: Encyclopedia of Comic Books and Graphic Novels . Ed .: M. Keith Booker . tape 2 . Greenwood Press, Santa Barbara, California 2010, ISBN 978-0-313-35746-6 , pp. 528 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed July 11, 2011]).
  11. Mark Millar, Steve McNiven (Illustrator): Nemesis . (Nemesis 1-4). Panini Manga and Comic , Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 3-86201-190-9 (Comic, afterword).
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  13. charbelelnasr: Bootleg "Kick-Ass" clips from Comic-Con! In: comicbookmovie.com. Comic Book Movies, August 2, 2009, accessed December 30, 2011 .
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  15. a b c The Hollywood Reporter . April 9, 2010, p. 6 . , quoted from the-numbers.com
  16. a b Ben Fritz: Movie projector: 'Kick-Ass' set to take names with $ 30 million at box office. In: latimesblogs.latimes.com. Los Angeles Times , April 15, 2010, accessed November 3, 2011 .
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  18. ^ Writer Mark Millar on 'Kick Ass'
  19. Filming in Great Britain
  20. Filming locations of Kick-Ass
  21. a b c d audio commentary with director Matthew Vaughn, Blu-ray Kick-Ass
  22. ^ Director Matthew Vaughn talks Layer Cake and X-Men 3. In: movieweb.com. MovieWeb, May 11, 2005, accessed December 17, 2011 (English, "Music is half the film. I think music is what takes the experience off the screen into your soul, into your head. It ceases to be just there, it comes into you. Music is hugely important. Hugely. "- Matthew Vaughn).
  23. a b c "A new kind of superhero: The making of Kick-Ass: Totally turned up!" , Blu-ray Kick-Ass (online: "A New Kind of Superhero: The Making of Kick-Ass: Scoring" . Blu-ray Kick-Ass , English)
  24. Films scores composed by Ilan Eshkeri. (No longer available online.) In: ilaneshkeri.com. Ilan Eshkeri , 2010, archived from the original on November 24, 2011 ; Retrieved December 24, 2011 (manually navigate to> Kick-Ass). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ilaneshkeri.com
  25. ^ "Kick-Ass: The Score" by Various Artists. In: itunes.apple.com. iTunes, 2010, accessed November 29, 2010 .
  26. Libra23: Kick-Ass. In: yskts.blogspot.com. You Still Know the Score ?, June 27, 2010, accessed November 29, 2010 .
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  28. ^ Kick-Ass (Music from the Motion Picture). In: itunes.apple.com. iTunes , accessed November 29, 2011 .
  29. Kick-Ass: Music From The Motion Picture. (No longer available online.) In: universal-music.de. Universal Music Group , 2010, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; Retrieved November 29, 2010 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.universal-music.de
  30. Kick-Ass - Original soundtrack. Soundtrack presentation. In: mix1-music.de. mix1.de, 2010, accessed on November 29, 2011 .
  31. a b MIKA - Making Of Kick Ass. In: universal-music.de. Universal Music Group , accessed April 27, 2013 .
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  35. Ben Fritz: 'Kick-Ass' opens somewhat soft but still may have plenty of kick. updated. In: latimesblogs.latimes.com. Los Angeles Times , April 18, 2010, accessed December 30, 2011 .
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  46. Reviews at Metacritic
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  66. ^ Mark Cassidy: Major 'Kick-Ass 2: Balls To The Wall' Plot Details Revealed. Movieweb, July 29, 2010, accessed December 22, 2010 .
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