The best trailers for this movie make it appear hilarious, as perfectly-timed one liners and quick exchanges seem to flow effortlessly and endlessly between almost all the characters, not just potty-mouthed Hit Girl.
Unfortunately (or fortunately, if you’re an editor) this is a carefully crafted illusion, putting all the best moments, action and comedy, together in one rapid-fire stream of coolness that is mostly out of context and which doesn’t account for the REST of the movie…which is mostly ok-but-tedious-in-comparison.
The gross violence of the Big Bad Boss and his henchmen is understandably shown…we’re SUPPOSED to hate them. But what’s the point of showing an 11-year-old girl’s masterful, often grotesque slayings of henchman after henchman? I suppose, given Hit Girl’s costume as she enters the last soon-to-be Slaughterhouse, it could be seen as a stern warning to be afraid of little girls…perhaps an effective PSA for Pedophiles, but otherwise just plain gross.
I have no problem with “dark” humor, I have a problem with a movie that sells itself as a dark-humor cartoon and then contains about five minutes of that and two hours (or so it seemed as I waited for the inevitable ending for an interminable amount of time) of mediocre slop.
Watch the trailers, laugh your ass off, then skip the movie.
Grade: C-
2012: Grade: C