People tend to pick and choose what they want to be offended by, and in the case of the superhero genre, MatthewVaughn’s Kick-Ass provided one of the most stark examples.
The red-brand trailer for the subversive jet-black comedy crimefighter was greeted with gasps of shock and many pearls being clutched after the first glimpse of Chloe Grace-Moretz’s Hit-Girl revealed that she was using language you’d never associate with a 12 year-old kid.
There was an uproar on such unsavory content being included in what was an R-rated fantasy that leaned into the tropes of the comic book adaptation while simultaneously picking them apart, so a lot of the detractors completely missed the point. And yet, the fact Hit-Girl decimates an army of henchmen in brutally violent fashion managed to get away virtually scot-free, because bad words are apparently significantly worse than bludgeoning.
The storm in a teacup didn’t do a thing to dent Kick-Ass earning instant cult favorite status, though, with Vaughn’s ode to excessive spandex-clad vigilante justice recouping its budget almost three and a half times over at the box office while enjoying plenty of critical acclaim.
The less said about the sequel the better, but it’s the opener that’s been opening a can of you know what on streaming. Per FlixPatrol, Kick-Ass has scratched and clawed its way to the upper echelons of the Starz most-watched charts, over a decade after leaving jaws on the floor and stuffy cynics aghast at what was in store from the get-go.