Courtesy of Box Office Mojo, this weekend's box office stats: http://boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/?yr=2013&wknd=33&p=.htm
Sad to say, but this doesn't surprise me too much, and I don't want to sound like a bragging Captain Hindsight (nod to you all you South Park fans out there!), but I saw this coming.
The more and more I saw of the trailers and TV spots, the more I was convinced Kick-Ass 2 was going to flop at the box office this weekend. Why? I didn't see anything new. In the red band trailers, I saw all the same violence and vulgarity I saw in the first film. And Hit-Girl and Kick-Ass being conflicted about quitting the life, and wanting to be done with crime fighting for good? Eh, just to toss out a few examples, we've seen similar storylines in The Dark Night Rises, Spider-Man 2, Batman Forever, and more recently Iron Man 3.
Kick-Ass was supposed to be something new and unique. A more hardcore version of Mystery Man with bloody violence, cursing, and edge we haven't seen in too many mainstream superhero films. I know some of you will say "Hey, Mitch! What about Super with Rainn Wilson and Ellen Paige?" Well, yeah we had Super, but Kick-Ass managed to make a bigger splash on a larger landscape.
Anyway, we had the nerdy hero to root for in Dave Lizweski/Kick-Ass, and his ass kicking, foul mouthed partner, Hit-Girl. Moretz and Johnson still bring their A-Games in the sequel (review will have to come tomorrow or the day after guys, my tank is on E right now), and Mintz-Plasse is entertaining as The Mother Fucker, but Kick-Ass 2 was more of the same old, same old from the first film, with a little Mean Girls sub-plot thrown in, as Mindy tries to figure out, who she is. And as I alluded to before, they reintroduced the storyline of the heroes contemplating retirement, something we've seen too many times before, and we all know how that ends.
There was so much buzz surrounding the first Kick-Ass film, and while I enjoyed the sequel, I didn't leave the theater hoping for a part three. It's a shame, because with this awful opening weekend (and things aren't going to get any better next week), there's a good chance this could be the end of Kick-Ass before we see a reboot or remake in the future. Or even worse, they'll try and pull off a straight-to-video sequel.
Think of all the potential Kick-Ass had to be something different. No supernatural powers, no rich billionaire primary protagonists, and no fancy high tech gadgets or machines. And on top of all that, Kick-Ass was a fun parody of the superhero genre, and neither film takes itself too seriously. Now? The end of Kick-Ass is almost a sure thing, because I can't imagine another sequel after such a disappointing opening. And that means we'll probably get more of the same ordinary and cliched superhero films with flashy, loud special effects and stylish fight scenes, as Hollywood continues to reboot, remake, spin-off, and add sequels to the likes of Spider-Man, Batman, and other giants in the genre for years to come. Sorry, but it's going to be hard to top the likes of Nolan's Batman trilogy, Bryan Singer's X2, and Sam Raimi's Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2.
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