This morning on The Today Show entertainment reporter Richard Wilkins slammed the superhero movie Kick-Ass, which features murderous foul-mouthed vigilante children in homemade superhero uniforms, as “wrong, so wrong” before giving it one star (out of four) and advising people to not “even think about” seeing it because of the violence and language. (Incidentally, he gave Date Night 3.5 stars – so there’s your yardstick).
The movie comes out today and, with an MA rating, you would imagine that most people would know what to expect from a superhero film with such a classification. The Dark Knight, for example, also received an MA classification and featured high levels of violence, and Wilkins described it as “a must-see movie” and gave it four stars.
Is there a difference when it comes to superhero-style violence in cinema according to who is dishing it out, whether it be the major villain, adult cape wearers, or foul mouthed pre-teens?
In the context of a fictional superhero film where the genre conventions are intentionally being turned on their head, I’m not sure if it does.
Why can’t Richard just chill out and be more like Karl:
The film opens in Australian cinemas today – watch it and give us your thoughts.
