Uploaded May 2018 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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Two years ago Deadpool appeared and thrilled the mainstream movie going public with its everything. It's fourth wall breaks, self-referential humour, ironic pop rock soundtrack, bloody violence and various swear words: It had many things going for it, not least a pitch-perfect performance from Ryan Reynolds, furthermore it was extremely satisfying to see Fox Marvel taking some cheap shots at itself, and superhero films in general. All in all, it is pretty great. But released half a decade earlier, another film can lay claim to being the first post-modern superhero film: Matthew Vaughn's Kick-ass.

Plot summaries suck, but here we go: Kickass is a 2010 film about an ordinary teenager named Dave who one day decides to become a superhero. But he has no powers and he's a teenager. A teenager that thinks that calling his new persona “Kickass” is a good idea. There's a storywriting trope called “the hyper-competent man”, a character that is skilled in all that he encounters. Dave slash Kickass is not a competent man. And this skill-gap is widened after the introduction of vigilante team supreme Hit Girl and Big Daddy. Will Dave succeed at his new vocation or will he die trying? And that's the first 40 minutes of the film. If you haven't already, Go watch it. Minor spoilers from now on.

Soundtrack:
"Maximum Effort" - Junkie XL (Deadpool OST)
"Stand Up" - The Prodigy (Kick-Ass: The Score)
"Flying Home" – Marius de Vries, Ilan Eshkeri, Henry Jackman, John Murphy (Kick-Ass: The Score)

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