Kick Ass has been widely labeled as a postmodern film because it deconstructs conventions of the superhero genre by showing what would happen if ordinary people tried to become superheroes without actual superpowers. However, some argue it is not fully postmodern because it still embraces classic superhero elements like costumes, heroes vs villains plots, and follows a linear narrative structure. While it references and plays with genre in postmodern ways, it may not fully deconstruct the genre to reject what makes it recognizable.
2. Lesson Objectives
• To know: Why Kick Ass has been widely
labelled as a particularly postmodern
film.
• To consider whether Kick Ass is a
particularly postmodern film.
• To begin to think about how much of
contemporary cinema might justifiably
be called postmodern.
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6. • Kick-Ass is the story of Dave Lizewski, a comic book
fanboy who decides to become a real superhero.
• As Kick-Ass, Dave starts out less than successful, but
eventually, he gets famous from social networking sites
and the Internet, and his presence raises awareness of
superheroes around New York City.
• However, as crime fighting becomes a more serious
profession, Kick-Ass gains the attention of a local
kingpin, and becomes a target for the criminal
underworld. Only his association with other members
of the vigilante community he's inspired can save him
from their vengeance.
7. • What themes are consistent in super hero comic book genre?
• One main protogonist - hero
• He has super powers
• The love interest
• Ordinary
• Some are geeky, others are millionaires
• revenge themes plus fighting crime, good evil
• Villain, sidekick
• Costume - to disguise self
8. • What lends itself to being po-mo is that it looks at what
would happen if regular people tried to become superheroes
in a world where superheroes don’t physically exist, they are
only a myth
• Kick-Ass functions as a deliberate, overt subversion of the
genre by incorporating signs familiar to it (the caped
costume, the origin story, the iconic villain) and tweaking our
expectations (giving the protagonists guns instead of
superpowers, making the superheroes hardly super or
heroic)
• The superhero is a cooler, more youthful hero, who is on TV,
and therefore as he is partially realistic he is a very different
character to the myth of a superhero.
9. • Kick-Ass, it can be said, deconstructs the comic book
hero genre.
• Except it doesn’t. By trying to deconstruct it, it shows the
incomplete and superficial aspects of the superhero myth
that it is attempting to deconstruct.
• It draws attention to the way you suspend disbelief about
comic book heros, and exposes how they can be
unbelieveable.
• Three quarters the way through, it basically mirrors the
classic superhero tale.
10. • The end of Kick-Ass features all that one would expect from
the finale of the conventional superhero film:
• closure, a climactic end battle, the triumph of the
protagonists, and the ruling out of the enemy.
• True genre deconstruction, as Kick-Ass proves, can not really
exist, as that would require straying far enough from the
genre to reject those generic features that make it
recognisable in the first place.
• To parade as a subversion of genre, a film like Kick-Ass
must, at some point, sincerely embrace the ideas behind it or
it loses connection with the genre and proves how tenuous
the grounds that define its genre truly are.
11. • Why is Kick Ass a post modern film?
• It deconstructs the comic book genre
• Parody (ironic mickey taking humour) when superheroes try to fly from
buildings and crash
• Young girl involved in bad language, adult humour and her being violent and
involved with violence
• Its not po-mo as it still has these features: costume, good and evil story, geek
to athlete. BUT the post modern hero has no super powers nor any motive
• Its plays around with the core aspect that says that all superheroes have special
powers. In this film he doesn’t and it shows how that heroes aren’t invincible.
In this respect its post modern and playful and more enjoyable.
• Metatextual - based on a real comic and intertextual refs - my space, youtube,
spiderman, batman and the comic book style typography
12. Kick Ass has been
widely labelled as a
really postmodern film.
WHY?
• It deconstructs the normal conventions of the super hero genre
• Its plays around with the core aspect that says that all superheroes have special
powers. In this film he doesn’t and it shows how he isn’t invincible.
• Metatextuality - film about comic books in general and Inter textuality -
references to Spiderman, Superman, Batman
• Self referential - scenes set in a comic book shop, dialogue about comic books
with the girl, and the drawings of comic books
• Self referential when he refers to himself as a child after his mum dies and says
“by the way thats not me”.
13. • What elements are not post modern?
• Clearly definable hybrid genre of action /
comedy
• Doesn’t change or swop around time periods
massively like in A Cock and Bull - a fairly
chronological narrative
• No real breaking the fourth walls - no actors
address the audience
14. IS
really all that
postmodern?
•A lot of people believe that the terms like postmodern
and postmodernism are really just fashionable nonsense
– that they don’t really mean anything. (There are
postmodern essay generators online that will create
nonsense essays full of ludicrous terms –
www.elsewhere.org/pomo. )
•In the same way, lots of people label certain films, tv
programmes and so on as postmodern when they’re
probably not particularly postmodern. Or, when they only
really have a couple of postmodern characteristics.
•In short – the adjective postmodern is over-used.
•There are certainly elements of Kick Ass that are
postmodern but it’s worth us asking the question of
whether it really is all that postmodern.
16. • Why is kick ass po-mo?
• Borrows genres - comedy, action adventure, romance.
• It is a satire and a deconstruction of the comic book
genre. Picks apart another genre to take a focussed
look at it, in order to play around with the mixture of
reality and myth.
• By doing this you understand the limitations of super
heros.
• Inter textual references to Batman, Spiderman,
Superman etc
17. • Why is it not post modern?
• It does follow the normal super hero genre
and doesn’t totally deconstruct
• It follows a classic linear narrative
21. • A critic writes:
• The kills are satisfying, and there’s drama to be
enjoyed. However, the execution is all in the
choreography and the gimmicks – animated footage,
slow motion, dismemberments and splashes of blood,
and a scene designed to look like a video game.
Considered on the surface, the vision of a murderous
11-year old is pretty unnecessary, another trick to
shock and engage the audience.
• However, it doesn’t break ground, or contribute
anything very important to the action genre.
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22. The same critic....
• Kick-Ass makes the mistake of reducing its real-
world deconstructions to the clichés that they're
lampooning.
• The story toys with themes of interesting themes
concerning society, and the real consequences of
violence, but it never addresses the true dimensions
of true superhero comic book themes, which are
more moral, and more about good and evil.
• Because what does Kick-Ass ultimately become,
except the classic comic book fantasy cliché, with
superhuman feats of strength and righteousness.
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