Kick-Ass is a 2010 superhero picture centred on the comic book of the same name by Mark Millar and John Romita, Jr. The picture is directed by Matthew Vaughn, produced by Vaughn and actor Brad Pitt, the script written by Vaughn and Jane Goldman. The picture premiered March 26, 2010 in the United Kingdom and is due to premiere April 16, 2010 in the United States.
The picture tells the story of teenage Dave Lizewski who sets out to grow to be a real life superhero only to get fixed up in a larger combat. He meets Big Daddy, a former police who, in his quest to knock down a bad drug owner Frank D'Amico, has trained his eleven-year-old daughter to be the brutal vigilante knock-Girl.
Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson), a typical teenage boy, ponders why nobody has ever decided to grow to be a real-life superhero like the heroes in the comic books. His friends at a comic book store told him that if anyone did grow to be a superhero, they would get their ass kicked, and probably be killed. Regardless of this, Dave decides to make a superhero outfit for himself and grow to be a veiled crimefighter. Dave fails at his first attempt to fight crime - he is crushed, stabbed, and hit by a car. He assures paramedics to say nothing of his costume and fakes he was brought in nude. In hospital for several weeks he is left with traction holding his bones together which he says makes him look like Wolverine. He also suffered with nerve injury which leaves him very weak. When he goes back to school, his longtime crush, Katie Deauxma ( Lyndsy Fonseca), seems more interested in him. His friends make clear she thinks he is gay and wants to take care of him. Lizewski goes along with this in an effort to spend time with her.
Dave remains undeterred by his former setback, and ends up intervening in a gang combat outside a diner. Dressed in outfit and using two customized night-sticks, he fights off three men. As the fight ends, a man who has been recording the incident on his phone, asks Dave who he is, and he replies: "I'm Kick-Ass". The video is posted on the internet and soon becomes an internet phenomenon, making Kick-Ass an overnight sensation.
As Kick-Ass, Dave sets up a MySpace account, so people can contact him for aid and is overwhelmed with reactions. While with Katie, she admits that she was being harassed by a drug dealer, and Lizewski assures her to ask Kick-Ass for help. He examines and ends up in an apartment full of violent lowlifes who try to murder him. He is saved by a costumed, sword-wielding young girl named hit-Girl ( Chloë Grace Moretz), who kills all the attackers and then leaves to join her father, Damon Macready (Nicolas Cage), whose alias as Big Daddy. knock-Girl (Mindy Macready) jumps across the rooftops and tells Kick-Ass to go behind her, but he is afraid to jump, so they leave him behind. Later Kick-Ass is visited at home by hit-Girl and Big Daddy who have traced him from his MySpace account. hit-Girl and Big Daddy inform Kick-Ass that they can work together.
Meanwhile, native crime association leader Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong) hears of the deaths of many of his men because of the new legend, Kick-Ass. In search of Kick-Ass, D'Amico kills an impersonator whom he thinks to be Kick-Ass. His son, Chris (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) advices that he create a new superhero character ('Red Mist'), enticing Kick-Ass into meeting him. At first, Red Mist tries to guide Kick-Ass to a warehouse. They arrive to find it on fire, and the men are dead; Red Mist fetches secret surveillance video recording which shows that Big Daddy is responsible for the assault. Red Mist asks Kick-Ass to call knock-Girl and Big Daddy for aid, and they arrange to meet at a secure house. As soon as they arrive, hit-Girl is sitting on a window ridge and Red Mist shoots her, throwing her out of the window. Kick-Ass and Big Daddy are captured by D'Amico's men and taken to a warehouse where the gangsters stage an internet broadcast, to bare and kill the heroes and there starts a fierceful battle in which Big Daddy is killed.
After killing their enemies, both hit-Girl and Kick-Ass retire from crime combating, with Mindy living a normal life and attending the same school as Dave. Another wave of superheroes have been inspired by his exploits. Red Mist is shown donning a new mask and swearing vengeance.
Review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes gives the movie a rating of 80% based on 49 reviews, with an average score of 7.3/10. The picture received a 15-certificate rating in the United Kingdom, for "strong language, once very strong, & strong bloody comic violence". It is similar to Watchmen (2009, Zack Snyder), Defendor (2009, Peter Stebbings)