Kick Ass Trailer Friday

It's also the movie title!

Now before you start the "but Dustin, I already saw Watchmen and I didn't get it and it was confusing and it made my head hurt and nobody understands me" nonsense, let me reassure you that despite the visual resemblance to Zack Synder's moody, gritty, symbolism filled Alan Moore adaptation, I guarentee you that the similarities stop there.  Well, the story concepts are kind of the same.  And they are both based on comic books.  And they...oh come on, have you watched the trailer yet!  It's not Watchmen (which was awesome, by the way, and Kevin Smith agrees with me, so there!).

 This wacky comedy comes with a bit of a Cinderella story, as up until Liongate Films picked it up in August, the film had been practically completed with no distributor attached.  Nobody and their mom (especially their mom) had heard a single thing about Kick Ass until it exploded onto the scene at the 2009 San Diego Comic Con with what was widely regarded as the most promising footage of any film displayed at the expo, despite displaying alongside heavy hitters like Avatar and Where the Wild Things Are.  The film rapidly became the talk of the conference, and thanks in no small part to the outpouring of fan love, the film is now coming to theaters in 2010.

The footage in the trailer looks gorgeous, achieving rich color depth yet remaining balanced and natural, staying away from the cartoon-y look of oversaturated films like Speed Racer or even Snyder's Watchmen.  I honestly can't think of another film that's managed to look this organic without being yet another tribute to the 1001 shades of sepia.  It's hard to believe this film was originally running on a $30 million budget.  

 The film is the second collaboration between director Matthew Vaughn and screenwriter Jane Goldman, their previous work being the surprisingly fun and whimsical Neil Gaiman adaptation Stardust.  True to form, this film seems to have whit and whimsy at the forefront, as well as a good deal of over-the-top, theatre of the absurd from what might be a saving-grace performance by now marginalized actor Nicolas Cage, who plays as batman parody "Big Daddy" who trains his ridiculously too young daughter into the lethal crime-fighting machine "Hit Girl."  The trailer also has a vibe that reminds me of superhero parody shows like The Tick or the Spielberg produced Freakazoid cartoon, and frankly, after the endless run of comic book movies that take themselves WAY too seriously, it's refreshing to see a superhero film devoted to the concept of comedy.

Kick Ass hits theaters in April of 2010