Kick-Ass Narrative

The narrative of Kick-Ass is typical of the genre. The film works as a cause and effect and is a typical liner narrative. One thing causes the next and certain things spark others such as Dave discussing real line superheroes which leads to him actually becoming the first and so on. However, this film also has alternative narrative devices which makes the audience confused or makes the audience question what is happening.

The narrative of the film is typical as we are introduced to time and space through small captions that appear at the bottom of the screen which is a clear influence of the comic book. In addition to this when Marcus opens up the comic book the audience are introduced to Mindy’s backstory and how she and Damon have become superheroes. The simplistic and conventional structure and plotline of the film is easily recognisable for audiences as Dave is simply a high school boy who becomes a superhero with no powers.

The narrative of Kick-Ass is typical as superhero films as there are clear character types. It is evident to the audience that Kick-Ass is the hero, Katie is the princess and Frank D’Amico and his gang are the villains. Certain things provide Dave with the goals to go out and kill others such as Katie saying Rasul is harassing her making Kick-Ass turn up and the house and allow Hit Girl to go on a killing spree. However the characters of Hit Girl, Big Daddy and Red Mist are all strange as although they are seen as heroes they do show clear traits of villains, this is shown mainly though Hit Girl as she has no motives whatsoever to kill all the people she does other than the fact her father has told her to and his personal vendetta is getting in the way of him seeing her as a child and is driven to turn her into a mini assassin.

The strangest aspect of this film is where we see Dave’s mother die in the beginning of the movie, as in most superhero films the goal of the hero would be to avenge their mother, however Dave says that this is not the case and she had no impact on him becoming a superhero. This challenges the audience and what they know of superheroes and it makes the audience question why they have been given this piece of information as it pretty much useless as it does not impact on anything later in the film. Another scene that could be seen as useless is where the children’s entertainer is shot to death, this scene primarily shows the brutality of this city and to lead the audience into believing that their hero has been shot dead, which they then learn is not the case. Kick-Ass is not like all other superhero films as Dave does not have a clear motive to become a hero, he does not want to seek revenge or save the city he is simply curious and sees it as an opportunity to get a girlfriend along the way.

Overall Kick-Ass is a typical superhero movie through its narrative devices but through McGuffins and omniscient/restricted narration the film differs from every other superhero movies.