SPOILERS FOR KICK-ASS 2... and, strangely enough, THE NUMBER 23
You may be thinking to yourself, "Man, Jim Carrey in KICK-ASS 2 looks a lot like Jim Carrey in THE NUMBER 23." And before you laugh cruelly (or play saxophone menacingly) at me for my lapse in memory ("I WROTE THIS BOOK!?!"), let me explain myself.
I'm using a photo of Mr. Carrey from the psychological shit show that was THE NUMBER 23 because he has publicly denounced the violence in KICK-ASS 2 and has refused to do any promotion for the film. After the events of the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting, Carrey decided that the level of violence depicted within the film was something that he could no longer endorse. Some considered Carrey's ability to recognize the "wrongs" in something he had helped create and, though he did not apologize for making it, applauded the noble stance he took in the wake of a senseless tragedy. Others understood his position, but wondered whether or not it was the right one to take. If this issue was truly something close to his heart, why would Carrey not take the opportunity and use the usual promotional rounds as a platform to start a conversation about the depiction of violence in popular media. And there were some who, like the comic's creator, Mark Millar, questioned Carrey's position altogether. In an entry on his Millarword.tv forum, Millar responded to Carrey's comments saying, "This is fiction and like Tarantino and Peckinpah, Scorcese [sic] and Eastwood, John Boormanm, Oliver Stone and Chan-Wook Park, Kick-Ass avoids the usual bloodless body-count of most big summer pictures and focuses instead on the CONSEQUENCES of violence... Our job as storytellers is to entertain and our toolbox can't be sabotaged by curtailing the use of guns in an action-movie."
And that was my first reaction when I read Carrey's comments. I completely agree that the violence depicted in the various forms of consumable media deserves to be looked at more closely. No, I am not some prudish, conservative wacko who thinks that all violence depicted on film or TV or in video games leads kids or whoever views them to want to go out and shoot up an elementary school or a theater in Colorado. Quite the opposite, in fact. I believe, like Millar, that the depiction of violence in consumable media can convey and effectively question many ideas about the world and the horrors within it. Films like David Cronenberg's A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE or Clint Eastwood's UNFORGIVEN are both incredible pieces of cinema that, through depicting explicit scenes of violence, act as magnificently poignant commentaries on the CONSEQUENCES of violence that Millar is talking about. KICK-ASS 2 does not. While I'm sure Millar's comments can be applied beautifully to his and illustrator, John Romita's comic book sequel, lumping Jeff Wadlow, whose most famous work up to this point was 2005's CRY WOLF, and his cinematic interpretation of Millar's comic in with the likes of Sam Peckinpah and Martin Scorsese (or even Martin Scorcese) is ridiculous.
The fact is, unlike Peckinpah's CROSS OF IRON or Scorsese's RAGING BULL, KICK-ASS 2 simply doesn't know what it wants to be. Unlike its predecessor, which walked the tightrope between off-putting vulgarity and disarming charm, cynicism and sweetness, and brutal violence and childlike innocence, KICK-ASS 2 can't sustain its own contradictions. It tries so hard to be both a Tarantino-esque vessel for unhinged vengeance and rage and a critique on that same notion in superhero films that it becomes neither. Any moral questions the films starring duo (Chloe Grace Moretz and Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Hit Girl and Kick-Ass respectively) do end up asking themselves are drowned out by the increasingly mindless and sadistic set pieces that Wadlow and company throw at you. And by attempting to neutralize the violence this way, any shock or revel that makes something like an INGLORIOUS BASTERDS or a DJANGO UNCHAINED so wonderful is dissipated. What you're left with is a dumbed-down, pointless rehash lacking any of the wit or inspiration that made KICK-ASS such electrifying entertainment.
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The only thing that KICK-ASS 2 really nails is the Hit Girl/Kick-Ass relationship. Aaron Taylor-Johnson at the ripe, old age of 23 plays high school senior beautifully with that subtle, blushing awkwardness with which I am, as I'm sure many of you guys are, all too familiar. But it's in Moretz's performance where, if the film does it at all, we see the consequences of violence that plague a young girl who chooses a life as a crime-fighter over that of a "normal" teenage girl. Yes, the once shocking filth that oozed out of the 11-year-old's mouth in the first film starts to feel like the shrugging profanities of any rebellious teen. And yes, it's admittedly hard to recreate the wonderfully bizarre pairing of Hit Girl and Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage, whom I sorely missed). Yet, despite all of this and the film's many other flaws, Mindy McCready's arc kicks a lot of ass. You can see all of the pain and destruction the death of Big Daddy has caused in her life in her eyes. Her struggle to figure out who she truly is, and her decision and ultimate departure stating, "I killed six guys with a cop's gun. They don't take it easy on antiheroes," is exactly what I was hoping for when I heard the film was getting made.
But all Hit Girl's story ends up being is a microcosm of what could have been. During a summer where Superman kills thousands of people and causes millions of dollars in property damage without anyone questioning his reasoning or lack thereof, a witty, biting satire on the consequences of superhero violence would have been a welcome sight. What we got instead was projectile vomit and diarrhea and a character named The Motherfucker (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) screaming about how a shark bit his dick off.
Regardless of whether or not your motivation was noble, Mr. Carrey, I think you made the right decision.
