Amph Kick-Ass & Kick-Ass 2 (Hit-Girl prequel & Kick-Ass 3 in the works?)

I caught it a second time and did enjoy it more the second go-around.

But, yeah, I can see how the ending might seemed muddled (probably because the ending wasn't adapted from the comics).

I think the point was:

Spoiler

That superheroes have to eventually stop being superheroes, sort of in a "Batman has to retire eventually" type way. That real heroes fill in when they're not around.

Mindy can't stick around because of what she's done but Dave can- even if he's not a badass. At the end, though, he's working towards being a badass to continue that legacy. I think the implication is Dave is on a path to being the next Big Daddy (thus the armored helmet and suit designs).

The retirement vs badass thing is probably where it gets muddled. I think what they're getting at is that superheroes eventually have to hang it up, but Hit Girl and Kick-Ass aren't ready to do that yet (they're the ones turning pain into good, etc, etc).

 

And to be fair- he wasn't Nick Cage being Nick Cage, he was Nick Cage being Nick Cage by channeling Adam West.

 

Just because a movie he was in isn't awesome, doesn't mean he wasn't .

 

The money was probably just Hit Girl and Big Daddy's stash (suitcase of money from the first film from drug dealer raids).

 

Raising Arizona can be a tough movie to watch, but the people it clicks with tend to love it dearly.

That said, I've given it several chances during my life and just don't find it that funny. Cage is fine in it, but the only reason to really watch the movie is because of John Goodman. Even I found him hilarious in the movie. The Warthog From Hell bits were fun too. The rest of film just kind of exists.

 

Matthew Vaughn may not have given up on the franchise yet.

With the release of the "Kick-Ass" sequel not faring particularly well with either critics or at the box-office, it looked like that franchise died a quick death - something that actress Chloe Moretz seemingly confirmed last year in interviews.

Now though it appears Moretz could slip back into the Hit-Girl outfit - in a prequel. Matthew Vaughn, who directed the first film and this week's "Kingsman: The Secret Service," says that he thinks the franchise still has plenty of life left in it and one suggestion would be a Hit-Girl prequel movie ahead of a third "Kick-Ass". Vaughn tells Joblo:

"Do you know what's going to be next if I do it... we've finished plotting it. What we have to do is, we've got to do the 'X-Men: First Class' to the Kick-Ass world. We lost a few fans on Kick-Ass 2. It wasn't as loved as one would've hoped.

So we have this idea for a Hit-Girl prequel. It's a really strong, really simple prequel where I think we can regain the love and the passion. If that happens, I'm pretty sure I can persuade Aaron and Chloe to come back and finish the story of Kick-Ass with 'Kick-Ass 3'.

Mark and I have already plotted Hit Girl. We have to get the script done next. It's so far out there, you have no idea."

With Moretz recently turning eighteen, a 'prequel' per se seems impossible unless they recast a younger Mindy. The other possibility is essential a Moretz-led standalone spin-off akin to "The Wolverine" with flashbacks including a younger actress and Nicolas Cage's Big Daddy.

Vaughn says he would NOT direct the third "Kick-Ass" and is looking for a "really bold, clever director" like "The Raid" helmer Gareth Evans to tackle the movie which is mostly set in the Far East.

I'm surprised this is even being considered but I guess KA2 did manage to barely break even domestically and do about the same worldwide. Not the magic "3x budget" number but then video sales were a factor in getting KA2 made (albeit on top of KA1's much better BO performance).

Still, I'm curious to see where they take it if this does pan out. The Hit-Girl comic series was basically combined with Kick-Ass 2 for the KA2 movie... and the KA2 movie actually precluded several major elements from the KA3 comic series from being used so a potential third film would have to deviate significantly from the source material even more than the first two films did in order to work at all.

In any case, here's hoping they manage to capture the joy and energy of the first film that the second mostly lacked. Vaughn's recent Kingsman movie tried to emulate Kick-Ass (though directed at a different genre- spy films) for the second half of the movie but it's limited focus (as the first half of the movie tried to be something different- something more like First Class) came up a bit short (the film still managed to be entertaining despite that- it just wasn't the pure joy that KA1 was).

 

There's also

Spoiler

The MF'ers mom being a key role in the first thurs of KA3, despite her dying in the second film.