State your unpopular film related opinion - Part 3

[Majik1387]

Which he was.

 

[moviedoors]

Ok so some people consider Kick Ass as having superpowers and some do not. I'm just saying I would have liked the story more if he was just an ordinary boy

Yeah, and the one's that don't are wrong.

 

[Ipodman]

They're not wrong... just different

 

[moviedoors]

He's got super powers, so saying he doesn't is wrong. 1 + 1 = 2.

 

[Ipodman]

I would have liked the story better if he didn't

Are we talking about the same thing lol

 

[Superman 1265]

Yeah, I will admit that in that first act, when Kick-Ass got himself stabbed, I was interested to see where it would take it. But then he got super powers, he got the hot, popular girl in school (whose also a huge comic geek. Yeah, if that's not nerd wish-fulfillment, I don't know what is), lamely choreographed wire-foo fights that defy physics, a jet back, silly pop-songs like Bad Reputation, a horrendously temped-to-death score, a rote and predictable story, and, probably most egregiously, being violent without actually dealing with the implications of it (Big Daddy was clearly a violent, insane sociopath who trained his daughter to be a miniature killing machine. Did we see that handled realistically or seriously? Not even a little bit. Hit Girl sees her father brutally murdered, is a murdering sociopath herself, and she's just fine and dandy after she gets bloody revenge at the end) I was beyond pissed. Here is a movie that defines trying to have your cake and eat it too, all the while pretending like it's the coolest thing ever made. Far and away, my most hated movie of 2010.

Ooo, it felt good to get that out.

Joan Jett is a rock artist, she isn't Pop . Sorry to nitpick about that, but I get kind of irritated when someone labels a pure rock song as Pop music.

 

[Bunker]

I would have liked the story better if he didn't

Are we talking about the same thing lol

Kick-Ass still gets his ass kicked in every confrontation. His ability to not feel pain doesn't really help him at all.

 

[Superman 1265]

Here's my unpopular opinion: I didn't think "The Dark Knight" was as great as others did, I also didn't like Heath Ledger's Joker.

 

[moviedoors]

Joan Jett is a rock artist, she isn't Pop . Sorry to nitpick about that, but I get kind of irritated when someone labels a pure rock song as Pop music.

Meh. The whole thing seems faux-rebelious and after already hearing that song in Shrek, a freakin' kids movie, a decade ago, it was such a contrived, easy choice to put it in here while a kid kicks ass. It was another moment in a long list of moments designed to make audiences cheer that made me want to vomit.

As long as I'm talking about Joan Jett, I wanted to throw something at my TV during her lame cameo in Repo: The Genetic Opera. There's another movie I couldn't have disliked more.

 

[Ipodman]

Pop? Rock? What do all these terms mean nowadays...

 

[moviedoors]

I would have liked the story better if he didn't

Are we talking about the same thing lol

More or less, I just can't conceive of these people who have the "opinion" that he didn't have superhero style powers are thinking. He gets in an accident, has magical surgery that makes him able to withstand crazy beatings (forgetting that just because you can't feel it, doesn't mean that your liver isn't falling or your lung isn't collapsing) and a Wolverine style "enhanced skeleton." If that's not a typical superhero origin of a normal guy getting powered up, I don't know what the hell is.

 

[moviedoors]

Pop? Rock? What do all these terms mean nowadays...

Pop, rock. Whatever.

How about this for a label: cliche.

 

[Superman 1265]

Meh. The whole thing seems faux-rebelious and after already hearing that song in Shrek, a freakin' kids movie, a decade ago, it was such a contrived, easy choice to put it in here while a kid kicks ass. It was another moment in a long list of moments designed to make audiences cheer that made me want to vomit.

As long as I'm talking about Joan Jett, I wanted to throw something at my TV during her lame cameo in Repo: The Genetic Opera. There's another movie I couldn't have disliked more.

It's your opinion. Personally, I'd much rather listen to her music than the crap most teens my age listen to.

 

[moviedoors]

It's your opinion.

No, really!

 

[Ponyboy]

Here's my unpopular opinion: I didn't think "The Dark Knight" was as great as others did, I also didn't like Heath Ledger's Joker.

I kind of agree. I thought Ledger's take was interesting, but I didn't prefer it over say, Jack Nicholson's... I also thought Ledger was overrated in the film, while Two-Face was underrated (& grossly underused)... But I digress... It's a good film, not a great film. My opinion.

 

[moviedoors]

Ang Lee's Hulk is an ambitious, odd, kinda crazy movie, and whilst not perfect, I admire the crap out of it. That movie had balls.

I also dug the hell out of The Shadow and I got a goofy kick out of The Phantom.

 

[Thebumwhowalks]

More or less, I just can't conceive of these people who have the "opinion" that he didn't have superhero style powers are thinking. He gets in an accident, has magical surgery that makes him able to withstand crazy beatings (forgetting that just because you can't feel it, doesn't mean that your liver isn't falling or your lung isn't collapsing) and a Wolverine style "enhanced skeleton." If that's not a typical superhero origin of a normal guy getting powered up, I don't know what the hell is.

Ok, I have been on the recieving end of kickings comparable to the one Kick-Ass takes from those guys, so here is my own personal experince of the injuries, and how I can give that scene a pass without the need for 'superpowers'.

You can take a really bad kicking escaping without broken bones, but it is down to luck as to where you get kicked.
If you take a kick in a weaker spot of the body, with smaller bones, like, say your hands or wrist, you could get a bad sprain, a fracture or a break. But, if they are kicking into your legs, torso and arms, you will generally get really bad bruising, or maybe a cracked rib. I got bruised ribs so bad, i thought one of my ribs must have cracked, but no it was just bruising. and this was from full force kicks that went on for about a minute or so.

edit: aye, the guys who kicked me where not as big as those guys in the movie, but, my kicking was more sustained, I took more of them, he gets kicked, and then they turn away from him, kicked again, then they turn back to the other guy, and so on, with mine, it was full on non-stop.

and of course, if you take kicks to the face, you will get your nose busted up real bad, again, an area of the body that has smaller bones.
The only time I ever got my lung punctured was when I got stabbed, yeah, it does happen from bad beatings, but it's not common in that regard.

I can believe he got away from that situation with some very bad bruising, I mean, it's not supposed to be 100% reality right, I take it in the same way I do most movie violence, like, it's the same reason why when someone gets ko'd by a punch to the face, they don't get their cheekbones knocked out of place and eyeballs filled up with blood. But, it's not like he has 'superpowers' either. There is a mix of reality, and movie magic.

But even just talking in terms of reality, someone can come away from a kicking with the types of injuries you say, but that is in the worst case scenario, they can also walk away from a real bad kicking with just some very bad brusing, it's down to luck for the most part in where you get kicked.

edit: as for the scene with them on the net cam, well, I'd need to watch it again, from memory, he mostly takes knuckledusters to the face right? Maybe a couple to the stomach.
Well, his face would be a right frickin mess, cheekbones smashed, eyes filled with blood, he'd probably be ko'd as well. So, yeah, there is a hyper reality of movie violence there, same as with all movies, as I was saying, you see folk getting ko'd and they don't have much in the way of bad injuries to the face, but if they took that much force to the face to ko them, they would.

They give him bruises and a bloody face, so again, it's movie magic, they don't want the actor looking too bad for the final scenes. But, aye, those injuries to the face are more intense than the kicking from the gang earlier. He should be a right frickin bloody mess there.
I'd need to watch the scene again to see what kind of hits he took to comment, but, I do think in the case of the earlier one with the gang, he could have escaped from that one with some very bad bruising only.

edit: Of course, they use the conceit of the metal plates and screwed up nerve endings to give the guy 'superpowers', and those types of things would in no way benefit you in real life(although i don't know about the nerve endings thing, arn't there folk who can feel no pain in ceratin areas due to that type of thing? I dunno), but to me, that is just a way of trying to explian the 'movie/comic book magic' thing, where the person doesn't look as messed up as they would if they had been attacked in real life that way.
I also give it a bit of a pass as I imagine he is just one of those types who can take a real good beating, adrenaline kicks in and they can still get up and walk around afterwards. You can ignore the pain too.

 

[Ipodman]

Even if he didn't have the messed up nerve endings, I would have been fine with him walking around fit and healthy after a beating because that's what happens in action movies anyway. The "hero" always has magical healing powers

 

[moviedoors]

Even if he didn't have the messed up nerve endings, I would have been fine with him walking around fit and healthy after a beating because that's what happens in action movies anyway. The "hero" always has magical healing powers

That's a problem I have in general with movies. I'd love to see an action movie where someone takes like three, knock-you-out-cold blows to the head, and then can't balance themselves and they vomit uncontrollably. Then they fall asleep at the end, and they DIE.

 

[Ipodman]

Well... I can think of... Taken? When Liam Neeson punches someone, the other guy basically gets knocked out instantly...

 

[Thebumwhowalks]

Even if he didn't have the messed up nerve endings, I would have been fine with him walking around fit and healthy after a beating because that's what happens in action movies anyway. The "hero" always has magical healing powers

Aye, but usually the action hero is a steriodied up freak of nature, so the suspension of disbelief can be easier for folk, KA is just a guy with an average build, so I gave my personal perspective on that, and why I can give the beating by the gang a pass in the believability stakes. I don't even need the addition of the metal plates and nerve endings thing for that, I do think having those additions is kind of funny though, I don't see why old moviedoors is getting so angry about it, lol.

edit: I mean, it's not like the whole movie insists it's some kind of realistic vigilante thing, sure, in the beginning, it plays like that, and as i have said before, I did prefer that approach in the original comic, those first three issues are the best, but once they introduce hit-girl, you just have to go with it and enjoy the satirical take on action heroes. When it comes to action movies it's all unbelievable to a large extent anyway, they just have a lot of fun playing with that.

 

[moviedoors]

Well... I can think of... Taken? When Liam Neeson punches someone, the other guy basically gets knocked out instantly...

Well, that's common. I'm talking about the consequences of taking a blow like that. They range from "not pretty" to "lethal."

 

[Thebumwhowalks]

Well, that's common. I'm talking about the consequences of taking a blow like that. They range from "not pretty" to "lethal."

That is why it is curious to me why you are getting so bent out of shape about the way violence is handled in KA.

If you were mightily mightily pissed off about the fact that the real life vigilante movie you had been waiting to see was bismirched by childish attempts to explain away the movie magic, I guess I could see that. Some of your gripes just seem bizarre though. Like calling the music 'temp music'. I don't recall the original soundtrack music sounding inconsistent like a temp soundtrack would. If you didn't like it, fine, but it's a wonky critisicm to make, lending credence to the thought that you are just ranting and raving about a movie that rubs you up the wrong way for whatever reason.

Also, complaining about there being no consequences for the violence, and BD and HG's characters.
By the time we get to HG and BD's characters the movie has become a satire on action and comic book movies and is having fun with the concepts, if you don't get that, your being a bit of an old fuddy duddy.

There is nothing 'common' about this superhero/action flick, there are so many cb movies you could have that complaint about round here, they go on automatic pilot, but this is not one of them. It takes the idea of the unbeatable super/action hero out there and makes fun of the superheroes, that's why some fans don't like it, they take their comic books far too seriously sometimes, and want thew GA to take them seriously too, so feel KA is doing the genre a disservice. But, there should be room for all types of superhero movies, including ones that have satirical takes on the usual tropes.

You are taking this movie far too seriously, and it shows in your ill thought out criticisms.

edit: I mean, I did enjoy reading your critisicms, and I love the movie, so even though i disagreed with your critisicms on a gut level, what I did was look into myself and honestly see if any of these critisicms were valid from my pov, I measured them all up, and saw that they didn't apply to my pov at all.

 

[moviedoors]

If you were mightily mightily pissed off about the fact that the real life vigilante movie you had been waiting to see was bismirched by childish attempts to explain away the movie magic, I guess I could see that. Some of your gripes just seem bizarre though. Like calling the music 'temp music'. I don't recall the original soundtrack music sounding inconsistent like a temp soundtrack would. If you didn't like it, fine, but it's a wonky critisicm to make, lending credence to the thought that you are just ranting and raving about a movie that rubs you up the wrong way for whatever reason.

Dude, there's sections of music straight up licensed from other movies. The one that immediately springs to mind is 28 Weeks Later. The rest of the score sounded just as disjointed. Like they fell so much in love with their temp track, that not only were certain sections straight up obvious temp copies, they just went ahead and used the temp in certain scenes.

And yeah, I am ranting and raving about this movie, and one of the myriad reasons I'm doing so was the score.

Also, complaining about there being no consequences for the violence, and BD and HG's characters.
By the time we get to HG and BD's characters the movie has become a satire on action and comic book movies and is having fun with the concepts, if you don't get that, your being a bit of an old fuddy duddy.

Then it was awful satire that didn't make me laugh and didn't make me think a little deeper on what it was satirizing. A satire that doesn't do those things is a failure in my book. All it's made me think about is how wrong I thought the whole affair went.

There is nothing 'common' about this superhero/action flick, there are so many cb movies you could have that complaint about round here, they go on automatic pilot, but this is not one of them. It takes the idea of the unbeatable super/action hero out there and makes fun of the superheroes, that's why some fans don't like it, they take their comic books far too seriously sometimes, and want thew GA to take them seriously too, so feel KA is doing the genre a disservice. But, there should be room for all types of superhero movies, including ones that have satirical takes on the usual tropes.

I would've had zero problem with it being fun and not serious, if it hadn't set itself up as a subversive take on those tropes. I approach each new movie, story, whatever based on what world it sets up to play in. I like the serious drama of the Nolan Batman's, but I also love the goofball charm of Ironman 2. In this case, instead of being actually subversive, like Watchmen, Kick-Ass just added more gore and more cussing than the norm. Did they push those elements because they had a point to make? No, it was just hipster, postmodern window dressing. The rest is utterly rote and predictable, just like the Hollywood movies it thinks its sending up.

I have no problem with a superhero movie that doesn't take itself seriously. I just said, a few posts up, that I like The Phantom for godsake!

And I am so far removed from a comic book fan that takes their funny books too seriously. I barely even read the damn things anymore. I'm a movie fan first, comic fan, I don't know, thirteenth.

edit: I mean, I did enjoy reading your critisicms, and I love the movie, so even though i disagreed with your critisicms on a gut level, what I did was look into myself and honestly see if any of these critisicms were valid from my pov, I measured them all up, and saw that they didn't apply to my pov at all.

Good for you. Seriously. I won't begrudge you liking it, and I expect the same courtesy in return when I don't agree.

 

[Thebumwhowalks]

Dude, there's sections of music straight up licensed from other movies. The one that immediately springs to mind is 28 Weeks Later. The rest of the score sounded just as disjointed. Like they fell so much in love with their temp track, that not only were certain sections straight up obvious temp copies, they just went ahead and used the temp in certain scenes.

Ok, so they did use one piece from another movie that you know of, i didn't know that, so that could be true, they used a piece of temp music that worked well.
I'm pretty sure they had someone score some original music for the film though, but i didn't notice anything inconsistent in that regard.
I don't know man, maybe you had that 28weeks later/temp idea stuck in your head and it gave you that impression for the whole score?

anyway, ok, you didn't like the score, but I'm pretty sure they used an original composre there.

And yeah, I am ranting and raving about this movie, and one of the myriad reasons I'm doing so was the score.



Then it was awful satire that didn't make me laugh and didn't make me think a little deeper on what it was satirizing. A satire that doesn't do those things is a failure in my book. All it's made me think about is how wrong I thought the whole affair went.



I would've had zero problem with it being fun and not serious, if it hadn't set itself up as a subversive take on those tropes. I approach each new movie, story, whatever based on what world it sets up to play in. I like the serious drama of the Nolan Batman's, but I also love the goofball charm of Ironman 2. In this case, instead of being actually subversive, like Watchmen, Kick-Ass just added more gore and more cussing than the norm. Did they push those elements because they had a point to make? No, it was just hipster, postmodern window dressing. The rest is utterly rote and predictable, just like the Hollywood movies it thinks its sending up.

I have no problem with a superhero movie that doesn't take itself seriously. I just said, a few posts up, the I like The Phantom for godsake!

And I am so far removed from a comic book fan that takes their funny books too seriously. I barely even read the damn things anymore. I'm a movie fan first, comic fan, I don't know, thirteenth.



Good for you. Seriously. I won't begrudge you liking it, and I expect the same courtesy in return when I don't agree.

We are meant to laugh at ourselves during this movie, ourselves and any people who take their action movies far too seriously. As comic book and action fans are wont to do on occasion.

You have a comic book fan, and/or a Stallone, Shwarzenegger, Statham fan sitting there saying 'this is ridiculous, a little girl fighting and taking on all these gangsters, this is an outrage!'
Well, y'know, it is taking that idea to the extreme, that of the one man army who can destroy every enemy in their path. The movie becomes a cartoon with it's violence at that point.
It's subverting the superhero/comic book hero from the opposite angle that it did in the beginning, when it showed a very realistic scenario with the mugging.

btw, I apologise if I took the piss a bit too much, maybe I got over defensive back there as it is a film that I love. But, I do think that you were getting a little too bent out of shape over the film, as I don't think it was setting itself up as much as you think it was as some high faultin satirical work like Watchmen or whatever, it was just having fun with the tropes and taking the piss out of them a bit from a couple of different angles.