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In terms of courting controversy, the biggest star at the multiplex these days is a little girl who is handy with butterfly knives and ninja swords.
I'm talking about Hit Girl, a character in the recently released superhero film "Kick-Ass." Young actress Chloe Moretz has simultaneously earned raves and revulsion for her performance as the pint-sized, 11-year-old killing machine. Special interests groups are outraged, calling the film a disgusting example of Hollywood immorality at its worst (or finest?).
Some people are even slamming director Matthew Vaughn for what they see as the sexualization of an 11-year-old girl. Frankly, I don't understand this argument at all.
Yes, Hit Girl piles up a ridiculously high number of kills in the movie, and drops enough f-bombs and other verbal unmentionables to make Quentin Tarantino blush. Her bloodthirsty behavior is incredibly inappropriate. But in terms of being "sexualized" in some perverse manner, I'm sorry. I'm not seeing it, and I've seen the film twice.
Is "Kick-Ass" inappropriate? In many ways, yes. Irresponsible? Hardly.
I found the movie to be a rather brilliant piece of satire that pokes loving fun at the comic book genre that spawned the story ("Kick-Ass" is based on a Mark Millar/John Romita Jr. comic series). A large part of why I enjoyed it is because Hit Girl is such a fascinating character.
Her father in the film (Big Daddy, played by Nicolas Cage) loves her in a very sweet, completely insane manner. He gives her pop quizzes on weapons and shoots her in the chest – she's wearing a bulletproof vest -- to prepare her for the inevitable moment when some bad guy takes aim at her. Like I said, Big Daddy is certifiable. But it's all part of the joke.
Along with upending most comic book archetypes, "Kick-Ass" in particular lampoons the "hero and sidekick" story that's been a staple of comic books since forever. Is the Big Daddy-Hit Girl relationship any less dysfunctional than say, Batman and Robin? Bruce Wayne didn't exactly follow the parenting handbook when he decided to train his young ward Dick Grayson for a life of crime fighting.
Is it the costume that makes Hit Girl uncomfortable for some parents? She wears tights and a cape but it's more in keeping with superhero tradition than going for fetishistic appeal. Vaughn never shoots Moretz in a way that even hints of sexy. There are several other touches, like the use of the theme song from the old Saturday morning TV show "The Banana Splits Show" during one of Hit Girl's killing sprees that accentuate the character's strange … sweetness.
If the character was Hit Boy, would we be having this discussion? Perhaps we'd be talking about the violence, but the entire "sexualized" issue would be non-existent.
Look, "Kick-Ass" is rated R for good reason. It's ridiculously violent and profane. It's also a movie that a great many adult critics praised. Why?
Because it's a movie made for grownups.
Of course, the fact that a tiny tween girl assassin steals the movie is probably tempting many underage kids to plot ways to sneak in to see "Kick-Ass." I did the same thing when I was a wee lad lured by the creepy TV ads for "The Shining."
Keeping children out of R-rated movies is something parents have been dealing with since before talkies existed. How you deal with it is up to each individual parent.
My wife Cindi and I are expecting our first child (a girl!) in August. I can say with reasonable certainty of mind that there is no way I would let her see "Kick-Ass" before she was 13. It's too violent.
Of course, times and tolerance change. What is acceptable now might have been outrageous a generation earlier. Thanks to the always-connected multimedia world we live in now, children are exposed to adult themes at a much earlier age. Like it or not, that's the way it is.
Actually, children are so much more aware of the world around them now than in years past, it's a safe bet most kids who find Hit Girl cool are in on the joke. After all, many of them have probably already read the comic book.
Parents should exercise caution and common sense when deciding whether or not to let their kids see "Kick-Ass." They should also make that choice for the right reasons.
If you have a problem with severed limbs, exploding body parts and gallons of spilled blood, then keep the kids far away from this movie. The same goes if you don't want to hear underage kids with ninja swords dropping four-letter obscenities.
But if your primary concern is inappropriate sexual themes, then you can relax. "Kick-Ass" is not the movie to be worried about. "The Professional," on the other hand, you may want to block from the Netflix queue.
Michael Avila is the former executive producer of the nationally syndicated movie show "Reel Talk." A proud pop culture geek, he is also a contributing writer for websites such as msnbc.com, Newsarama.com and GeekWeek.com.
Related review: Hilarious 'Kick-Ass' delivers bloody fun
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Mr. Avila,
When your little girl turns eleven, dig this article back up and see how you feel then. I can pretty much guarantee that you'll feel differently.
you're saying that when his daughter turns eleven he will suddenly look at that girl as a sexual icon? You must be one twisted parent; I think it'd be safe to say CPS is late for a meeting with your kids and a suitable foster family.
you're saying that when his daughter turns eleven he will suddenly look at that girl as a sexual icon? You must be one twisted parent; I think it'd be safe to say CPS is late for a meeting with your kids and a suitable foster family.
...and when YOU become more mature than an eleven year old, I can pretty much guarantee that YOU will feel differently :-)
It's a movie for ADULTS, get a clue!
Exactly! That's why it's rated R-to let parents know that they might not want to take their kids. I don't see anything sexual about her--she's literally covered from head to toe and if she's got any sort of chest you really can't tell, at least, not from the pictures I've seen. As for her being violent, and if this was in issue if it were a boy, people would be up in arms complaning about boys and violent PG-13 rated video games and guns and how it leads to incidents in places like Columbine. Someone is always going to take issue with something they see because of the way they were raised to see it. Get over it, lady! DOn't let your future teen watch it, then til she's old enough....that should be quite obvious.
I went with my daughter (now 23) to see it.
She wants to start training, right away
This takes me back to the time I sat down with my daughter Miranda and watched "The Exorcist" with her. I believe she was nine or ten, and, throughout the entire film, she laughed and made fun of the plot and the storyline. She was not impressed with it at all. In fact, she expressed disgust with how bland it really was. I couldn't say much--I was terrified of the film, and I still am.
Get over it. Adults live here on Earth too, and we like entertainment. If you can't control your kids, don't be a parent. I know the difference between real and make believe, and I was playing violent video games since they existed. I played online games when I was 11 and was exploding zombie heads, hanging with 20+ year olds in online games pretending to be 25 (and all the adult conversation that comes along with people thinking you are 25), and murdering civilians left and right even if it WASNT the objective. Now I have a college degree, a full time job, friends, family, a home, and no skeletons in my closet that I would be afraid to share with the world. So if your child grows up to be a sword wielding maniac or thinks that killing people in cold blood is A-OK, then you did way more wrong than let them see an R-rated movie. If "moms against video game and movie violence" spend half as much time parenting as they do whining about fake blood then their kids shouldn't have problems. My guess is while they are out picketing and being useless their 13 year old daughters are off experimenting with the boys, and their sons are learning the magic of Mary Jane.
dbl
I'm tired of people saying Hit Girl is a fascinating character. She's a female 11 year old assassin. Is that fascinating? Well maybe if there was some insight into how she feels about doing this, but no. The only thing we get to see is that she smiles gleefully as she does so. Also, is her swearing interesting? Or just there for shock value? Big Daddy doesn't swear like a sailor, yet she does. Meaning the only reason her character is swearing is for shock value since she clearly didn't learn those words from her father. There is no in character reason for her character to be the way she is. In the movie, it's noted that Big Daddy's friend Marcus took care of her when Big Daddy was in prison. Are we really to believe that she became that much of a cold blooded killing swearing machine after living what we have to assume was a fairly normal life with Marcus for most of her existance? I would like this character if there was depth to her, conflict in her thoughts and actions, REASONS for her doing what she does. But what we get in "Kick Ass" is just an offensive attempt to shock the viewer
The interesting part was that she was a little girl, but acted NOTHING like a little girl. It was this contrast that made her character interesting. You were able to relate and rally behind a character that for all purposes should be helpless, innocent, and vulnerable, but wasn't ANY of these things even a little bit. The shock factor for the villain characters in the movie, and their reaction to a situation that they could barely even wrap their minds around was very entertaining to see. I mean come on... what is not to love about an entire room full of gangsters, murderers, and drug runners being completely and UTTERLY annihilated by a little girl? To the last they died with a look of overwhelming confusion and disbelief. "What the... that little girl is killing the hell out of all of us!!!!!" *BAM* It was a little shock mixed with the type of imagination and make believe that you just can't see anywhere else but in a movie. Everyone knows that the situation is neigh impossible, they know it doesn't make any sense... and who knows why hit girl is the way she is? The comic might elaborate, but she spent the first years of her life with no mother, and her father in jail all because of some mob criminals who set him up. That is a pretty big motivation for anger... anger that her father obviously nurtured. What kind of assassin training did he give her? How did he display violence to her?
It could have been like movie after movie of violent fighting and foul language, which instead of discouraging, he ENCOURAGED. The power a parent has over their child is not to be underestimated. Especially a Daddy with his Daughter at that age. He may not have personally cursed, but when she did he encouraged and rewarded her with huge smiles and loving words. When she talked of death and killing he was gleeful, and took her to bowling and ice cream for training in war games. Come on... you can't stretch your imagination THAT far? I think you need to read some books to jump start it....
I guess. I'm not saying I hated the movie overall, just her character in particular I felt was left purposely unexplained. Maybe if they showed some of the stuff you're talking about there then it would've worked better but I just felt they didn't do enough to explain her character. Like I said, she lived with Marcus for most of her early life and he seemed like a guy that was kind and on the level, so I can't assume she learned all that from him. It just seemed like there wasn't enough time between the time Big Daddy got out of prison and the time she became Hit Girl to justify her character becoming like that.
So, apparently you think this is a documentary, or something based on real life?
My daughter is 14 1/2 and I took her. Sure it was vulgar, but that was the appeal. It's not like my daughter hasn't heard those very same words in her 8th grade Algebra class at school. Hit Girl stole the whole movie and my daughter and I looked forward to every scene she was in. The angst of the teenage boy pretending to be gay was painful to watch, but Hit Girl was hilarious.
I think the high catholic school girl dress that Hit-Girl wears is a little teasing and pushing the limits of taste. Especially when she was wearing it out of her crime fighting costume. See the picture above.
Also, if you're concerned about sexuality in the movie, don't forget the scenes where Kick-Ass puts lotion all over his shirtless, love interest's back, while she just covers her boobs. Then there's a scene where they get it on in an alley against a dumpster. Then there's the innuendo at the beginning of Kick-Ass masturbating, and his trashcan full of wadded up toilet paper.
Hit-Girl may not be the sexual content, but this movie still has it. It's up for debate if the sexual material is no worse than what you might see on regular TV, but in my opinion it's still too much for a young age group.
You know whats funny is Brittney Spears did it, like 10 or whatever years ago, the whole dress like a school thing, I cant recall if people had an issue or not, but you know people seem to act like its something new people doing that sort of thing I mean can people hear me back int the 80's or 90's or 00's or whatever. lol
People, get it together now! If you don't want your underage child to see the movie, than don't let them see it! If you as an adult don't want to see it, then don't! Freedom to choose is your right. This is America and everyone has an opinion and a right to express it but come on, it's a movie! It's made up, not real life. Some people in this country must have had real bad childhoods to be getting this worked up over some of the dumbest things. It's not 1910 anymore, it's 2010 and things evolve, change and get better. Lets stop trying to make things worse by crying and protesting over the smallest things!
I agree with everything Michael Avila stated in his article.
Saw it - loved it - have a 15 year old daugher - am (by today's standards) extremely strict. There is nothing realistic in any way about this movie. It's pure "kick ass" fantasy. Which is why it's great/hilarious/awesome. And anybody that finds Hit Girl sexual in ANY way is a completely pedophilic perve. She's spunky, cute, funny, and amazing. But there is NOTHING at all adult or provocative in her behavior at any point.
"...but in my opinion it's still too much for a young age group." The movie is rated R so it's not intended for "young age groups."
It's a movie for adults who, as the writer of this article states, get the "joke".
Great flik. Anyone who thinks hit girl is some perverse fetish fanatsy is just projecting their own perverted thoughts. All I saw was some KICK-ASS action!
I didn't think she was sexualized, but she was boring and so incredulous as to be laughable (just not in a good way)
Ranks up there with people complaining about video games and tv shows and other stuff being to violet when hints were meant and made to be seen by those mature enough to understand the difference between whats real and whats not, I dont really get why people have to take things out of context and blow them out of proportion with articles like this.
But like I tell people you complain about what your kids do but you do little to do nothing to be a real parent, like not buying movies and games that aint for them, then when or if they go crazy and do something stupid and blame tv, movies and games.
Just wondering what was the cause of people killing people and other stuff before tv, radio, etc not like it started within the last 100 years or something, gotta love the hypercritical society we live in. lol
But I'm sure most of you can relate to me on this, when did watching movies turn into a complicated thing, guess I'm just preaching to the choir here. ~sigh~ owell I guess.
Let's keep things into perspective shall we? It's a kid portraying a character in a movie. Is your own little 11 year old angle going to start acting that way? Saying these things that were said in the movie? Shooting bad guys or cutting them up with swords? Highly unlikely. And, who's character would you say is the most over the top - Chloe in the movie Kick Ass or Linda Blair in The Exorcist? With what Linda did on camera I'd say that one's the more shocking and controversial. But, I'd have to say that they both played their characters beautifully and they certainly can look back on their experiences and feel good about the work they put into their characters.
I respect and understand Bes-1183273 points but she is incorrect about the violence and that its a shameful movie. The blood for the most part is computer generated save where the character kickass is stabbed. That was made real to show just how stupid it would be to put on a costume and try to fight crime. kids aren't dumb and are tougher than we give them credit when it comes to distinguishing entertainment violence and the real violence on the news. As far the sex between the two teenagers--shock!! teenagers having sex when the adults aren't around?! In my day--wait--we did the same thing whenver we could. To quote Emily Latell from Satuday Night Live "Never mind". Finally, a movie or video game isn't going to change who the kid is inside, if they're good this movie won't affect them. And thats where good parenting comes in. Be a good role model and be involved in your kids life and hope for the best.
As a follow up, as far as this movie affecting kids, I don't recall any news reports about young girls running around in purple school girl outfits using guns and knives killing people since this movie came out. So maybe the link between the violence decried in this movie and its influence on kids is overhyped (As usual).