Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Is the R-Rated Hit-Girl 'Kick-Ass' Trailer a Little Disturbing?


If you're still not sold on the subversive superhero movie Kick-Ass, even after hearing the "bananas" buzz out of this year's Butt-Numb-A-Thon, maybe a new trailer spotlighting the character Hit-Girl will entice you. You just might not want to admit that you got excited for a movie based on a spot focusing on a little girl who says the f-word and the c-word nonchalantly and shoots bad guys in the cheek and chops off their legs with even less of a thought.

Really, who is this trailer for? People who thought Natalie Portman wasn't young enough, foul-mouthed enough or violent enough in Leon (The Professional)? Guys who went to see Kill Bill Vol. 1 for the meteor hammer-wielding schoolgirl? Nostalgic audiences who will be too busy enjoying the Banana Splitstheme song to realize what they're watching?

Okay, so it's all over-the-top enough to get the simple defense, "dude it's just a comic book movie." At least they didn't have the kid wearing a sex-selling outfit similar to most female superhero costumes, right? Well, like Kill Bill's Gogo, Hit Girl does wear a schoolgirl outfit in the movie, but that's not shown too much in this trailer.
It actually makes a bit of sense that Lionsgate is marketing Kick-Ass with a trailer showcasing Chloe Moretz as Hit Girl. According to John Gholson's review over at SciFi Squad, the 12-year-old actress and her character were the highlight of the film for the BNAT audience. Still, it's easy to see some people being terribly disturbed by this spot.

Cursing kids are funny nowadays because of their rarity, for which we can thank the MPAA (remember all those PG-rated movies with swearing children in the '70s and '80s), and red-band trailers will totally exploit this humor, whether it's a film starring oft-foul-mouthed Bobb'e J. Thompson or the latest deconstruction of the superhero film. And evidenced by countless horror films and the cult popularity of Battle Royale, moviegoers seem to have a thing for violent young'uns.

Is it worse if it's a little girl doing the bad things? Is it creepy that it's Moretz as Hit Girl who is both appealing to and exciting fanboys more than anyone else (Nic Cage as Big Daddy); Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Red Mist; Aaron Johnson as Kick-Ass)? Check out the trailer over at Empire.com (or watch it below, though beware of foul language and violence) and then tell us what you think.

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