![kick ass 2 review kick ass 2 review](http://www.mwctoys.com/images2/review_ka2_1.jpg)
Shame, then, that KA2 is tripped up by its wonky tone.
![kick ass 2 review kick ass 2 review](http://www.minority-review.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Kick-Ass-2-moretz-taylor-johnson.jpg)
While there's memorable spectacle and some fun set-pieces (a suburban attack led by Olga Kurkulina’s Brigitte-Nielsen-on-crack Mother Russia is a highlight), Wadlow's helped massively by a returning lead trio who can confidently juggle comedy, drama and down-and-dirty ass-kickery. Relative newcomer Jeff Wadlow (2008’s Never Back Down ) proves an adequate choice to take over the writer/director reins from Vaughn, bringing a similarly vibrant energy that sustains the pace despite three decidedly separate sub-plots. Meanwhile, Mindy (an unavoidably older, but just as electrifying Chloë Grace Moretz) is forced to give up her hardcase hi-jinks as Hit-Girl in favour of a Pinocchio-like quest to become a 'real girl'. Dave/Kick-Ass (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) divides his time between buffing up and hitting the streets with budget super-team Justice Forever (led by an imposing Jim Carrey’s Big Daddy-alike, Colonel Colonel Stars And Stripes).īlaming Dave for his dad’s rocket-related demise, Chris (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) adopts a subtle new alias – The Motherfucker – and embarks on a road to super-villainous revenge with new team in tow (the equally subtle Toxic Mega Cunts). Picking up weeks after the original’s jetpack-tastic, bazooka-blasting finale, it finds its characters facing a world where more and more civilians are fancying themselves as masked vigilantes. Yet while KA2 manages to tick all the OTT boxes (Naughty words! Decapitations! Gimp costumes!), it also suffers from an undeniably super-powered sophomore slump, and a tone every bit as imbalanced and crazily questionable as its protagonists.
![kick ass 2 review kick ass 2 review](https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2013/08/16/16/AN262257355684_D047_00015RV.jpg)
Adapting from Mark Millar/John Romita Jr’s have-a-go-heroes comic, Matthew Vaughn was able to carve out a new niche in an already over-crowded genre, delivering a capes-‘n’-tights romp that managed to screw with comic-book conventions as much as it celebrated them. Back in 2010, Kick-Ass ' potty-mouthed, kinetically violent and tabloid-baiting brand of super-heroism was a breath of irreverent fresh air.