A Little Context For The New Kick Ass Photos

HitFix have published three new official images from Matthew Vaughan's Kickass, one of which you can see above. I think I can  more or less where each fits in the screenplay, and thought I might provide you a little bit of context to clue you in, the better to understand the images.

In the first you see Aaron Johnson as Dave Lizewski, the titular Kickass, in full costume and posing with two batons.  As he's looking into the lens, I thought it most likely comes from an early scene in which he poses in front of a mirror.  The scene begins with Dave in his underwear, looking lost and alone, but a package has arrived and when he opens it, he pulls out his Kickass gear, suits up and is immediately transformed.

Making Dave look like a kid when he's out of costume is going to be crucial to making the film work, to capturing the absurdity of this being just a normal child going out and risking their life.

The second image shows Nicolas Cage and Chloe Moretz as father and daughter Damon and Mindy, or when they're suited up, Big Daddy and Hit Girl.  She's by far and away the fiercest little fighter in the whole screenplay and could well end up stealing the whole film. There's not much as disarmingly charming as a cute little girl comitting acts of extreme violence – which is a weird, idea, but I think it's true.  I think the juxtaposition of assumptions only ends up making Mindy look sweeter.

The image shows their apartment, a boarded-up place with locks, bars and security measures aplenty, weapon racks on the walls, very little in the way of furnishing. A general sort of gun-metal survivalist chic going on.

And finally, in the third image we have Dave Lizewski out of costume, alongside Evan Peters and Clark Duncan as his friends Todd and Marty.  The comic book store we see is the setting of a good number of scenes, though this picture appears to be simply a promotional shot, not specific to the script per se.

The comic book shop has a coffee-shop attached (if there's one like that in England, can somebody please tell me where) and, in later sequences, becomes the scene of mass hysteria when Kickasssmania fires up.

KickAss has a pretty strong script from a comic with a great central premise, a wonderful cast and, now, these images are setting up what looks like a rather good movie. I feel quite confident about this one.