My review of Hit Girl, of Kick-Ass
So, I decided to watch Kick-Ass and review the character of Hit Girl. Why? Because at work, we decided to do do a group Halloween thing, and because we are all women, someone said we should be "kick ass women!" as a theme. So I immediately thought of the challenge here at Womenverse to do something creative we've never done before, and I was thinking of cosplay, and it all came together with that image in my mind of the girl with purple hair who I know was played by Chloe Grace Moretz, since this young friend of mine told me about it, and I thought SHE was Kick Ass, so, anyway.
After some research to put together the costume, I found out of course that she is Hit Girl. I made the costume, entered it at Womenverse, and posted a photo at tumblr to show my young friend, saying that, as an awesome cosplayer, she had inspired me to do this cosplay. She commented back that "we must analyze the character of Hit Girl soooonn" and again I was caught out as ignorant.
So this is all to rectify that and score another challenge. Here we go! And, oh, of course, spoilers.
Review (622 words)
Okay, I like it so far; love the slightly fakey comic book feel. I recognized the "downtown" scene as one of the backlots. The kids are funny, and wanting to fight bullies is a decent origin story, albeit not original.
Here's the scene introducing the future Hit Girl. What is this, Nicolas Cage??? I have to say it's a bit disturbing to see a man shoot his own daughter at point blank range, even if I knew she was wearing a bullet-proof vest. I have the feeling Nic is going to get killed though.
Hope it works, having this mobster theme, along with Christopher Mintz Platz, he's hilarious. I think they are living in the same penthouse as the dude in that move Tower Heist. Nice place.
Heheheh, the YouTube thing makes sense, but MySpace, heh.
Here comes Hit Girl. To the tune of The Banana Splits song. I like how well-trained she is, and this is a great action scene, but yeah, as I've heard, the amount of violence is rather upsetting, given that this whole thing is played for laughs.
And noww everything seems to be going off the rails. The Kick Ass kid is getting unlikeable, the whole thing is losing touch with reality, and I guess HG and BD are revenging, but--okay, this 3-D comic story is explaining it all. I guess Nic's weirdness is making sense. LIke his partner says, "vigilante justice, mass murder" isn't very appealing, no matter how justified.
Yup, this whole middle part is really sagging. I've lost all interest in the characters, the kid is annoying, and the story arc with the girl he likes is too unrealistic, even for this movie. And there isn't enough Hit Girl! Even though I find her upsetting, she is still the best character. And now that I understand that she's been trained since birth, and has no other life, her demeanor is more understandable.
Of course she comes through in the end. "I've got three million dollars in a suitcase. Is that longterm enough for you?" "Shut the hell up, and pick your weapon." I actually liked the ending, with the more grind house, campy approach to the final revenge. Maybe knowing what Hit Girl was revenging made the extreme and direct violence more tolerable? Or maybe it was the spaghetti western/Quentin Tarantino soundtrack. Plus, she was just so swift and efficient, it was easy to appreciate her.
So, overall? Loved the look and feel. I could see what they were going for. The idea of the kid creating this character, it becoming famous, getting the girl, with the crosscutting theme of the gangster kid and vigilante duo, is all a good set up. The part about everything playing out on the news, late night tv, and social media was pretty fun, though without the momentum of other times I've seen it used, like in Starship Troopers or Batman.
Yeah. I thought the tone was off, all over the place, with the mix of comic-y, fake-y, and real (the diner v. the backlot city street v. the real scenes of Manhattan). And at times this was disturbingly so, with the violence and mayhem and meanness not sitting great with the comic book feel. The character of Hit Girl was sharp and fun, but her nihilism and callousness was distressing, since, after all, she's just a young girl. And watching her get beat up just felt wrong. It's all quite twisted, but not in a dark way, in a kind of cheesy, unserious way. It's hard to explain, but it doesn't sit well with me. It was a good attempt, but it either went too far, or not far enough. And I honestly don't know which.
After some research to put together the costume, I found out of course that she is Hit Girl. I made the costume, entered it at Womenverse, and posted a photo at tumblr to show my young friend, saying that, as an awesome cosplayer, she had inspired me to do this cosplay. She commented back that "we must analyze the character of Hit Girl soooonn" and again I was caught out as ignorant.
So this is all to rectify that and score another challenge. Here we go! And, oh, of course, spoilers.
Review (622 words)
Okay, I like it so far; love the slightly fakey comic book feel. I recognized the "downtown" scene as one of the backlots. The kids are funny, and wanting to fight bullies is a decent origin story, albeit not original.
Here's the scene introducing the future Hit Girl. What is this, Nicolas Cage??? I have to say it's a bit disturbing to see a man shoot his own daughter at point blank range, even if I knew she was wearing a bullet-proof vest. I have the feeling Nic is going to get killed though.
Hope it works, having this mobster theme, along with Christopher Mintz Platz, he's hilarious. I think they are living in the same penthouse as the dude in that move Tower Heist. Nice place.
Heheheh, the YouTube thing makes sense, but MySpace, heh.
Here comes Hit Girl. To the tune of The Banana Splits song. I like how well-trained she is, and this is a great action scene, but yeah, as I've heard, the amount of violence is rather upsetting, given that this whole thing is played for laughs.
And noww everything seems to be going off the rails. The Kick Ass kid is getting unlikeable, the whole thing is losing touch with reality, and I guess HG and BD are revenging, but--okay, this 3-D comic story is explaining it all. I guess Nic's weirdness is making sense. LIke his partner says, "vigilante justice, mass murder" isn't very appealing, no matter how justified.
Yup, this whole middle part is really sagging. I've lost all interest in the characters, the kid is annoying, and the story arc with the girl he likes is too unrealistic, even for this movie. And there isn't enough Hit Girl! Even though I find her upsetting, she is still the best character. And now that I understand that she's been trained since birth, and has no other life, her demeanor is more understandable.
Of course she comes through in the end. "I've got three million dollars in a suitcase. Is that longterm enough for you?" "Shut the hell up, and pick your weapon." I actually liked the ending, with the more grind house, campy approach to the final revenge. Maybe knowing what Hit Girl was revenging made the extreme and direct violence more tolerable? Or maybe it was the spaghetti western/Quentin Tarantino soundtrack. Plus, she was just so swift and efficient, it was easy to appreciate her.
So, overall? Loved the look and feel. I could see what they were going for. The idea of the kid creating this character, it becoming famous, getting the girl, with the crosscutting theme of the gangster kid and vigilante duo, is all a good set up. The part about everything playing out on the news, late night tv, and social media was pretty fun, though without the momentum of other times I've seen it used, like in Starship Troopers or Batman.
Yeah. I thought the tone was off, all over the place, with the mix of comic-y, fake-y, and real (the diner v. the backlot city street v. the real scenes of Manhattan). And at times this was disturbingly so, with the violence and mayhem and meanness not sitting great with the comic book feel. The character of Hit Girl was sharp and fun, but her nihilism and callousness was distressing, since, after all, she's just a young girl. And watching her get beat up just felt wrong. It's all quite twisted, but not in a dark way, in a kind of cheesy, unserious way. It's hard to explain, but it doesn't sit well with me. It was a good attempt, but it either went too far, or not far enough. And I honestly don't know which.