Trailer Tuesday: Kick-Ass 2

-

What if superheroes were real? What would it be like if someone in our all too unpredictable and vulnerable reality decided to become a masked vigilante to fight crime? It's been the subject of a handful of films, but none has really seen their reputation grow over time like the unapologetically R-rated action comedy Kick-Ass. The film, based on Mark Millar's comic book miniseries of the same name, was one of my personal favourite movies of 2010 (review here). Now three years later, it's time for Kick-Ass 2, also based on the Millar comic sequel.


A couple of years have passed since high schooler Dave Lizewski (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) first caught the public's attention after donning a wetsuit and beginning to patrol the city streets as Kick-Ass. In that time, he's been joined by other masked vigilantes like the unhinged Colonel Stars and Stripes (Jim Carrey) and they've formed their own league of "superheroes".

Unfortunately Dave's old ally Chris D'Amico / Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) has vowed revenge for the death of his mob boss father. Chris reimagines himself as the gimp suit-wearing Mother Fucker, intending to become the world's first super villain. He surrounds himself with assorted costume-wearing criminals, including the towering Mother Russia (Olga Kurkulina). The threat is so great in fact that now-15 year old Hit-Girl / Mindy Macready (Chloë Grace Moretz) may be forced out of superhero retirement to stop the Mother Fucker. Hit-Girl's conflict - torn between an exciting life of crime-fighting and just being accepted as a normal teenage girl - is largely the focus of this international Kick-Ass 2 trailer.



Personally I'm a little sad that original Kick-Ass director Matthew Vaughn (who also helmed the excellent "teens and superheroes" combo of X-Men: First Class) bowed out of directing this one. His replacement is not especially proven Cry_Wolf and Never Back Down director Jeff Wadlow. Vaughn is still around as Kick-Ass 2's producer, for the record.

For now, as far as Kick-Ass 2 is concerned, I'm keeping my expectations moderated. Judging by the trailers, the film will still be a lot of darkly comic, gloriously unsanitised fun. However, it also seems to be more overblown than its predecessor - which only really lost its believability in the final credibility-stretching act. I'm hoping the sequel still includes many moments of normality among the beatings, blood and bullets, because that really helped to set it apart, and suck in a sympathetic audience as superhero-obsessed as its characters.


Kick-Ass 2 releases in the United States on 16 August. The film's South African release is currently unknown.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is the rebooted Lara Croft gay? Evidence for and against...

-
Image
As some of you know, I’ve been fangirling hard over the new Tomb Raider , the first entry in the video game series since 2008, and ostensibly a reboot for the entire franchise . Taking the form of an origin story, Tomb Raider 2013 depicts the events that transformed a beautiful, if bookish, archaeology graduate into a pistol-packing adventurer with a devil-may-care attitude. We meet Lara Croft as a pretty, fairly ordinary 21 year old, brooding over her work notes, listening to her mp3 player and very much confined to the shadow of her male mentors. By the end of the game, however, she’s taken charge – she’s had to! – and, battered, bruised and bloody, she’s both a survivor and hero, right down to rescuing the princess and carrying her away in her arms. Yeah, this is probably the best point to mention that there will be some Tomb Raider 2013 spoilers in this post, so read ahead with caution. Anyway, I loved the game. Technically it’s near faultless, it looks beautiful, the ov
Read more

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Queer Icon (Part 4)

-
Image
Part 4: The mystery of Lara Croft’s sexuality “Now what’s a man gotta do to get that kind of attention from ya?” – Larson Conway (Tomb Raider, 1996) Despite being an icon for many queer pop culture consumers, Lara Croft’s own sexual orientation remains ambiguous. Outside of the Top Cow comics and live-action films – where Lara is blatantly heterosexual, with a fondness for slightly scruffy bad boys (who keep betraying and hurting her) – the character comes across as primarily asexual. Kurtis Trent is the only male figure who even comes close to being a love interest in the game series. Lara's apparent sexual disinterest is despite the adventurer appearing very sexually attractive herself; a figure of desire with bee-stung lips, voluptuous breasts, toned stomach and impossibly long, athlete’s legs. Yet Lara is never dominated by sexual yearnings or romantic affections. She is very much in control of herself at all times. It’s worth noting, however, that over time th
Read more

Ladies I Love: Part 2 - Rhona Mitra

-
Image
Following on from the first post in this series , you may realise that I have a very definite type. Anyway, today we profile model-turned-actress Rhona Mitra . This 36 year old Briton is of English, Irish and Indian descent. You'll have seen her pop up on the big and small screen multiple over the past decade and a half, although Mitra's claim to fame is that she was the second ever model (some say first if you rule out "unofficial"  Nathalie Cook ) to play iconic video game character Lara Croft . From 1997-1998, Mitra could be found in PR material, as well as at trade shows, events and conventions as a flesh-and-blood embodiment of Tomb Raider 's kick-ass archeologist lead. There have been many official Lara Croft models over the years , but as far as I'm concerned Mitra remains the best. In my mind, of all of them, she most closely resembles the video game character in terms of facial features. Plus she comes from money and had a rebellious boarding
Read more