Kick-Ass 2 2013

Christy Lemire, ChristyLemire.com: The unloaded gun is also unfortunately a rather apt metaphor for the movie itself. Kick-Ass 2 may look powerful, but doesn't have much real pop. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: There isn't anything good to say about "Kick-Ass 2," the even more witless, mirthless follow-up to "Kick-Ass." Read more

Soren Anderson, Seattle Times: I miss Nicolas Cage. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: "Kick-Ass 2″ improves on its 2010 predecessor in at least one respect: It doesn't make the mistake of trying to pass off its bone-crunching brutality as something shocking or subversive. Read more

A.A. Dowd, AV Club: A juvenile comedy of excess, in which skewering adolescent power fantasies looks an awful lot like indulging in them. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: "Kick-Ass 2" has a mean-spirited vigilante streak the first film lacked (it seemed more concerned with justice, in its way), as well as a fatigue. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: A witless, mean-spirited sequel, "Kick-Ass 2" has the emotional maturity of an arrested 12-year-old and the ethical compass of a turnip. Read more

Drew Hunt, Chicago Reader: Sticking to the original's box-office-busting formula of blood, guts, boobs, and bad words, Wadlow sleepwalks through the material, failing to inject any personality into what's actually an incredibly disturbing story of pathological teens. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Honestly, this movie is rank. Read more

Adam Graham, Detroit News: The savvy wit and inspiration on display in the first film is absent in this dumbed-down, warmed over retread. Consider its ass kicked. Read more

Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly: What was once shocking now just elicits a shrug. Read more

William Goss, Film.com: ...an even more pronounced cartoon that maintains the first film's habit of mocking comic conventions while rarely subverting them. Read more

Wesley Morris, Grantland: All the wonder and surprise of the first movie is gone. It's just aping the violence in other movies and other comic books. Read more

John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter: Sequel offers exactly the blend of R-rated nastiness and candy-colored action fans expect. Read more

Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times: "Kick-Ass 2" is a lesser version of what it appears to be, an uncertain jumble rather than a true exploration of outrage, violence and identity. Read more

Tony Hicks, San Jose Mercury News: The whole movie could be considered a questionable attempt at appealing to 14-year-old boys, as the delightful irony of the first "Kick-Ass" was apparently exhausted before the sequel was made. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: What seemed edgy and brash in the original film is now routine and old-hat. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: It's a smart, edgy, unpredictable action-comedy, the tonal opposite of overwrought sculptures like "Man of Steel." Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: If it works at all, fitfully, it's because of the precociously talented and in-control Moretz, who basically carries the entire film on her own small shoulders. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: The meta-satire hits you over the head until not just your Spidey sense is tingling. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: A joke isn't as funny the second time around, and maybe especially not if you shout it. Read more

Michael Sragow, Orange County Register: Even the novelty of a deadly, blasphemous Hit-Girl wears off, and all that's left is over-the-top violence and under-the-belt humor. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Cartoonishly violent, with blood spray, vomit spew, severed limbs, impaled torsos and more, Kick-Ass 2 has none of the punky flair of the Matthew Vaughn-directed original. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: While there are some solid gold moments, the story as a whole has an unfocused, meandering quality, and there are elements that simply don't work. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Writer-director Jeff Wadlow establishes a premise and follows it without compromise, but the trail leads to a very ugly place. In the end, the journey wasn't really worth it. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Bungles the original cult hit's stylized ultraviolence and blunts its wincingly sharp humor. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: To stand out in a crowded marketplace, a sequel can't just kick ass - it has to blow minds. Read more

Adam Nayman, Globe and Mail: The year's most unpleasant movie. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: It no longer seems very smart (the YouTube and texting references are so 2010) and it's also not much fun anymore. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: If the original felt like it was designed for adolescents, however, this follow-up feels like it was made by an adolescent, one with a whopping case of ADHD. Read more

Cath Clarke, Time Out: You'll still be laughing, but where 'Kick-Ass' giggled at action cliches, this sometimes slips into them. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: It revels in carnage while lacking the visual style and gleeful humor of the original. Read more

Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice: You might not mind that director Jeff Wadlow, even more than Vaughn, has made sure that it's only the images that are provocative--never the ideas. Read more

Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture: While Kick-Ass 2 does a decent job of replicating the look and feel of the original (as well as that of the Millar comics), it doesn't have the same urgency. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: "Kick-Ass 2" can't decide what it wants to be when it grows up: a vessel for unhinged vengeance and destruction or a meta-critique of those same impulses. Read more