Preview Of 'Kick-Ass', 'Stardust' Director's New Superhero Movie

Thankfully, Matthew Vaughn's 'Kick-Ass' looks like something refreshing - an R-rated take on the superhero movie where the protagonists are social rejects that possess no superpowers whatsoever.

Based on Mark Millar's bonkers and gratuitously violent comic book, it seems that, at last, we may have a mature superhero movie that doesn't take itself too seriously - something 'Hancock' promised to be when it was released last year. Instead, it was a bloodless, generic, 12A superhero movie with a teen audience in mind.

'Kick-Ass' definitely won't make that mistake again - there's a scene in the film in which an 11 year-old schoolgirl lets out a tirade of foul language before cold-bloodedly slaughtering a gang of criminals.

That schoolgirl is Chloe Moretz's Hit-Girl, daughter of Nicolas Cage's Big Daddy. The two are superhero crime-fighters, with Christopher Mintz-Plasse (you'll know him better as McLovin from 'Superbad') fighting alongside them as Red Mist. However, taking the main role in the piece is Aaron Johnson.

Soon to be seen as a young John Lennon in 'Nowhere Boy', Johnson here plays Dave Lizewski, a teen obsessed with comic book superheroes. Not content with his high school life, Lizewski dons a mask and suit and begins fighting crime as alter-ego Kick-Ass.
The trailer, which you can watch below, gives a feel of the film's tone: the teaser begins with a self-made superhero nobly flying off the top of a skyscraper, only to fall hundreds of feet into a car below.

That pretty much sums up the nature of the whole thing. The rest of the trailer sees the aforementioned outsider 'superheroes' kill bad guys in a variety of gruesome ways, with the whole thing underpinned by a very playful, dark humour.

I've been a fan of director Matthew Vaughn since his fantastic directorial debut in 2004, 'Layer Cake'. After that movie, the director made 'Stardust' in 2007. The two films couldn't be more dissimilar - 'Layer Cake' is a mature, violent gangster drama whereas 'Stardust' is a comedic fantasy - but it seems Vaughn has combined the ingredients of both for 'Kick-Ass'.

Still, much of my excitement for the film is based on Nicolas Cage's involvement.
Soon to be seen on our screens as a drug-addled bent cop in 'Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans' and as a man turning vigilante to avenge his wife's assault in 'The Hungry Rabbit Jumps', it seems Cage is returning to unhinged-mode. This is a good place for him to be - Cage is always on his best form in films like 'Leaving Las Vegas' and 'Adaptation' where the director has seemingly let him out of his pen to run rampant and deliver a mind-blowing performance.

And, after years of playing the straight man in films like 'Knowing' and 'National Treasure', it would appear Cage has once again been let off the leash to get his teeth into some truly oddball parts. That's when the actor excels, making a movie obscenely entertaining, and it looks like the role of Big Daddy could be another one of those gleefully deranged parts for Cage.

See the trailer for 'Kick-Ass' below.