I don’t think I’ve ever been both simultaneously disturbed and entertained by a film. This film strikes me as something akin to “Natural Born Killers” in that it doesn’t quite know what it wants to be. It says it’s a satire of pop culture’s obsessive love of superheroes, and yet it appeals to our basest instincts, knowing full well that I’ll watch an 11 year girl dispatch criminals with a sharpened stick, no matter how much my brain tells me something’s off.
Ultimately, when it comes to Chloe Moretz’s role, the film wants us to enjoy her physical displays, and yet it isn’t prepared to hold itself accountable for the squirm inducing scene in which she is beaten. I don’t care how much fun watching her shoot several men to Morricone is, there is no excuse for the ridiculous amount of detail that went into that scene of her being beaten. The fact that there’s no differentiation between the violence she causes, and the violence she is later subjected to is what scares me; we laugh incredulously at her shooting a man straight through the head, and then it seems the film wants us to be entertained by her getting kicked in the face as well. Unsettling….
Call me a sap, but I thought one of the most clever things was the relationship between Dave and Katie. As a screenwriter, I’ve never been able to get past the “nerd getting the once uninterested hot chick” cliche in many high school films, and I felt that Dave being forced to play the role of “the gay best friend” was a rather clever way of getting around that usual plot inconsistency. Of course, once he reveals his identity, that plot thread goes off the rails, but perhaps I was just too taken with Lyndsy Fonseca to be THAT bothered…
i believe the reason the little girl was graphically beaten was a tactic 2 subdue the film viewer therefore making the kick -ass bazooka unexpectedly more effective
Nick Kostopoulos
I don’t think I’ve ever been both simultaneously disturbed and entertained by a film. This film strikes me as something akin to “Natural Born Killers” in that it doesn’t quite know what it wants to be. It says it’s a satire of pop culture’s obsessive love of superheroes, and yet it appeals to our basest instincts, knowing full well that I’ll watch an 11 year girl dispatch criminals with a sharpened stick, no matter how much my brain tells me something’s off.
Ultimately, when it comes to Chloe Moretz’s role, the film wants us to enjoy her physical displays, and yet it isn’t prepared to hold itself accountable for the squirm inducing scene in which she is beaten. I don’t care how much fun watching her shoot several men to Morricone is, there is no excuse for the ridiculous amount of detail that went into that scene of her being beaten. The fact that there’s no differentiation between the violence she causes, and the violence she is later subjected to is what scares me; we laugh incredulously at her shooting a man straight through the head, and then it seems the film wants us to be entertained by her getting kicked in the face as well. Unsettling….
Call me a sap, but I thought one of the most clever things was the relationship between Dave and Katie. As a screenwriter, I’ve never been able to get past the “nerd getting the once uninterested hot chick” cliche in many high school films, and I felt that Dave being forced to play the role of “the gay best friend” was a rather clever way of getting around that usual plot inconsistency. Of course, once he reveals his identity, that plot thread goes off the rails, but perhaps I was just too taken with Lyndsy Fonseca to be THAT bothered…