I’m not much of a Mark Millar fan but the first Kick Ass 2 hinted at enough of a subversion of the superhero genre and had enough shock value that it intrigued me. I would have loved a story that wholeheartedly embraced the idea that dressing up as a superhero and going out to fight crime isn’t just silly, it’s also utterly ineffective. Unfortunately the second half of the movie completely reverted to type, becoming yet another poorly executed superhero action movie.

This sequel has all of the failings of the first film and none of its cleverness or charm. Despite the campiness of the characters’ names and costumes, despite their lack of training and actual superpowers, and despite the deadly consequences of mistakes in the real world as the film demonstrates, it still falls back on the hoary old message that somehow heroism will prevail in the end. In the meantime, the police are inexplicably absent at key moments and wholly incompetent at fighting the villains. The entire premise simply strains credibility past the breaking point.

Dave Lizewski had a geeky charm in the first film but in this one, he doesn’t even seem to be trying. He doesn’t even seem to be the central character since Hit-Girl pretty much steals the show. As for Chloë Grace Moretz, seeing an eleven-year-old beat up adults had enough novelty value to offset quite a few shortcomings but the actress’ lack of actual athletic ability makes her action scenes look pathetic now that she’s grown up a bit. As for Jim Carrey, he is almost unrecognisable here behind the mask. As an aside, this has nothing to do with the film per se, but Carrey’s disavowal of the film post-Sandy Hook, is just ridiculous.

I’m aware that the original comicbook version is by no means a quality work either. But since it explicitly sets out to shock and offend as many people as possible, it at least has a certain thematic consistency. This movie adaptation by contrast has no idea what it wants to be and where it wants to go, other than to show actors in poorly tailored costumes in badly choreographed fights while spouting juvenile jokes. It wants us to make fun of kids stupid enough to put on a costume and call themselves heroes or villains. Yet it also wants to show how awesome they are. That’s the central contradiction that the film just can’t get around.

The end result is commercial pap with no artistic vision whatsoever and not even much entertainment value. Avoid at all costs.