Our final film text is the 2009 comic book, superhero, action, teen comedy - Kick-Ass. It looks big and dumb - it has blood, guts and gore, boys with nunchucks, jokes about masturbation and a twelve year old girl who drops the C bomb.
Yet it's steeped in references to film, TV, comics and music. It is self aware and purposefully plays with ideas of genre and narrative and it is entirely too smart for its own good. So from the romantic whimsy of Slumdog to the bleak and thoughtful This is England we finish on a fun note but no less thoughtful - in fact some of the stuff regarding postmodernism will bake your noodle!
The links below will take you to the lessons that we study in class, with some notes thrown in for good measure - but as always these notes are only to supplement your own, not to replace them. Although these pages should be the first place to visit should you miss any lessons.
Below the lessons are links to the movie and other resources that are useful in revision, as with your notes and the lessons, this research is not to replace your own, it should be in addition.
As always feel free to comment on any of the pages to make your own points or even start a forum of your own.
Lesson 1. The Superhero genre and the movie trailers
Lesson 2. An Introduction to Postmodernism
Lesson 5. Genre & Narrative - Postmodernism & Ideologies
Lesson 8. Regulation and representations of violence
Why 'Kick-Ass'?
This isn't a difficult question to answer...
- The opening scene with the Armenian superhero
- The Kill Bill style massacre to the soundtrack of the Banana Splits
What more reasons do you need?
