My first request. Somebody wants my opinion on Kick Ass, and so here it is.
But warning, this contains spoilers.
Firstly, I like the film a lot. It’s punky. It fights screenplay structure in the same way its central character fights crime, and as a writer myself I like this. Throw away the screenplay books, a little voice in my head says, you can do this your way Bryan. I’m ignoring at this point, the many aspects of the film that that follow the screenplay bibles as I see them and am concentrating on the few points that I can’t quite fathom, plotting that appears to stick two fingers up to the rules.
I’m sure that in screenplay classes through out the land hands will be rising and kids will be saying “But what about Kick Ass sir”, “What is Kick Ass’s goal in the second act?” To which some tutors will reply “Never mind that son, it was financed outside the studio system, and independent producers can do what they like!”
The question is posed early in this film by Dave Lizewski as to why people don’t ever try to become real superheros. His friend responds by telling him what we all know – because they’ll get their asses kicked.
But after getting mugged one too many times, and seeing a bystander doing nothing to help, he buys a suit, becomes the superhero "Kick Ass" and tests out this theory. Turns out his friend was right: Kick Ass not only gets his ass kicked but gets stabbed as well, and run over. But this doesn’t deter him from his mission. In my eyes Dave Lizewski is already a superman because of this: because he’s fighting for a noble cause, fighting for example, to stop a gang violently beating up a lone man. Isn’t this what being a true superhero is about?
What’s interesting is that at this point in a film, a debate normally rages. It is where Spiderman has his powers and the question is raised as to what to do with them. It’s a section of the film which ends with our hero usually deciding to embark on his mission - fighting crime for example in the case of Spiderman. Kick Ass though is already a crime fighter by this point but will decide to stop.
Kick Ass is about to be killed by some gangster types when some hard core vigilantes in superhero outfits arrive and save him. After seeing Hit Girl violently slay all the gangsters in the room, (some unarmed and running for their lives), he decides to give up superhero dom. Who can really blame him?
This section like so many others, is in short why it’s such a good film to watch. We are engaged morally on many levels at the same time: Is Hit Girl morally good, saving the day, or is she a murderer in a superhero outfit. The internal debate that rages while I watch is absorbing.
Structurally, central characters usually have pro-active goals througout the second act. They want something and take steps to get it. But Kick Ass isn’t really interested any more in crime fighting. He does want Erika, a girl who's become his friend because she thinks he's gay, to be his girlfriend, but he gets her very quickly, and for most of the rest of the film we’re engaged by worrying and concern for his future as the head mobster closes in on him, mistakenly believing he’s the vigilante that’s been slaying his team.
The secondary characters, have much stronger goals, particularly Big Daddy who holds the king mobster responsible for the death of his wife and wants revenge. These characters are so rich in detail that the film becomes multi protagonist.
It's the way the film ends that intrigues me most, story wise. Film endings are usually about how a character becomes a hero, how he transcends to a higher version of himself, getting rid of his flaws to stop the bad guys doing something terrible. Here though, Kick Ass’s journey has led him to helping Hit Girl avenge the death of her father. It left a sour taste in my mouth: the superhero Kick Ass has gone from defending the man in the street against an onslaught from a violent gang, to slaying criminals with a machine gun. He has joined the vigilantes. It’s a complicated bitter sweet note, that plays with our emotions once more. I liked it all the more for it.
In short, it’s a great film, rich with characterization. If it followed the rules more would it be even better? I have no idea.
I had the idea of a superhero with no powers but just a costume an an attitude six years ago and wrote a 20 minute script...got rejected by the BBC and Channel 4. There you go.
ReplyDeleteSomebody the other day thought I'd been a bit negative in the above review, which is a cause of concern. I'm glowing with admiration for the film.
ReplyDeleteIf I had more time I could write another 5 blogs on why I like so much of it, particularly the second section where Kick Ass is fighting for the first time (for many writers, this journey, in this section would take up the whole film, yet we get all the goodies in one short section here, it's interesting). The purpose of this blog though is that it was supposed to be about structure as I understand it, and how it relates to films I actually see.