And this is where Vaughn and the rest of his team truly excel. Sure, Kick-Ass is a rip-roaring action flick full of accomplished performances and smart one-liners, but unless you truly care about the characters, it's just another disposable superhero flick.
But you do care. Such time, effort and thought has clearly gone into the creation of Kick-Ass, Red Mist, Big Daddy and Hit-Girl that it's all-but-impossible not to root for them. The costumes may be laughable and the situations far-fetched, but it is shot and played with a conviction that truly grounds the picture in reality.
For that very reason, Kick-Ass is as good a superhero movie as has yet been made -- storytelling of the very highest order, crafted by experts who know, love and treat the subject matter with the respect it deserves.
The result is utterly compelling from start-to-finish; an adaptation that perfectly captures the anarchic nature of the comic while at the same time eliciting unexpected emotions from a film about a crime-fighting kid in a wet-suit.
You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll squeal in delight at the outrageous behaviour of a little girl in a purple cape. But most of all, you'll wish that all superhero movies were like this.