Kick-Ass 2

The 2010 adaptation of Mark Millar’s pulpy comic book Kick-Ass turned out to be a huge success on both sides of the Atlantic, tripling its budget to the sweet tune of a $96m return at the box office. Part of its success can be attributed to its element of surprise: surely few could have expected such a perfect blend of the superhero genre with black comedy and such graphic violence.

However, now that the icons of Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl have been immortalised on celluloid, many hands have been switched for the making of the sequel, also adapted from Millar’s source material. It’s an old cliché, but genuinely, Millar’s follow-up is one hell of a lot darker than the original Kick-Ass arc. Accordingly, this film deals in the same brutality, with some disquietingly bloody topics rising to the fore as the stakes are raised even higher than previously.

Following the events of Kick-Ass, costumed vigilantes have started crawling out of the woodwork, and Dave Lizewski (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) finds himself at the helm of an underground crime-fighting team. Among the ranks is the spiky Colonel Stars and Stripes (an on-form Jim Carrey), but Mindy Macready (Chloë Grace Moretz) has already chosen to hang up her cape and return to a more normal lifestyle. However, the vengeful return of Red Mist (the dependably brilliant Christopher Mintz-Plasse) – now under the super villain guise of The Mother F***er – threatens to induce destruction on a major scale.

Although not as streamlined – or as surprising – as its predecessor, Kick-Ass 2 still packs in all the volatility of the original feature, delivering on huge spectacle and incredibly visceral action sequences in a high-octane, foulmouthed romp. And, when all is said and done, wasn’t that always at the core of this series?

Michael Perry