A lot has already been made about Kick-Ass – the hoopla to which we ourselves contributed to back in March with our drooling, anticipatory hype piece – and now that the film adaptation of Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.’s celebrated comic book is in wide release the question is of course does Kick-Ass live up to the hype? Channelling our inner lethal 11-year old superhero (that’s Hit Girl in the movie) we’d say “what, are you fucking kidding? Of course it fucking does, dick wipe.”

This wild and rude attitude is indeed Kick-Ass’ crowning glory, as it pokes fun of the unflinching and uncomfortable moralism of recent superhero flicks by featuring said 11 year old girl (played by Chloe Grace Moretz with doe-eyed malevolence) beating the shit out of hordes of henchman and casually dropping C-bombs like it ain’t no thing.

Richard Wilkins can pout all he wants about this film and its potentially damaging effect on the youth of today (dude gave it a fizzling one star before jetting off to the nearest solarium no doubt) but really, we’ve all been subjected to worse than this and what’s more, the highly stylised action scenes that involve ordinary teenagers brutally beating, dismembering and killing the bad guys is so knowingly exaggerated that it would take a seriously deluded individual to take it seriously.

Instead, Kick-Ass should be seen and enjoyed for what it is, a, well, kick arse movie. This is fun. This is high octane entertainment done ever so right. It’s got bazookas, blood baths, jet-packs, quips, comedy, a smudge of hot-blooded teenage romance, and is uncompromising in its delivery of all those things.

We’ve already talked about the high-spirited genius of the comic book and Millar’s equally funny, engaging and exciting script, and being a devotee of that book, Matthew Vaughn’s big-screen treatment was always going to be out to prove. Thankfully though, the film adaptation is overwhelming faithful to the source material (which would’ve been easy as Millar’s pen is seemingly made for the screen as well as the printed panel). There are variations here and there, specifically protagonist Dave Lizewski’s successful love interest and the back-story of Nic Cage’s Big Daddy, but they never detract from the story instead coming across as wise, cinematic divergences.

So to wrap up my own divergences in this review and try to grasp at something cohesive that would implore you to see this film, Kick-Ass has some insanely awesome action scenes, a gloriously cutting sense of humour, and if you don’t see it you’re probably a shit eating douche nozzle. (*High fives Hit Girl*)

Check out exactly why we love Kick-Ass in our gallery of 11 kick arse comic book panels from Kick-Ass!