Kick-Ass Trailer, Posters, SXSW, And WTF?

Written on January 26, 2010 by Marc Eastman in Movies

It’s a rare movie that can get so many people talking about it months before its release. At least, when that movie doesn’t have a huge budget, a wildly popular book tie-in, a big player directing, or something driving that discussion. Kick-Ass, however, has some other things going for it. First, it’s called Kick-Ass, and nothing starts off that Monday morning water cooler chat like, “Have you seen the trailer for Kick-Ass?”

Another thing you can’t overlook is that the film is about (more or less) a comic fan, vaguely nerdish teen who decides to become a superhero, despite not having any superpowers. Now, a close second on his list of things to do was blog about a movie in which this happens, so there’s a lot of buzz being drummed up there.

It isn’t opening until April 16th, though it’ll be at SXSW in mid-March which isn’t going to hurt it at all, and people have already been talking it up for quite a while.

Here’s the official synopsis -

A twisted, funny, high-octane adventure, director Matthew Vaughn brings KICK-ASS to the big screen.

KICK-ASS tells the story of average teenager Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson), a comic-book fanboy who decides to take his obsession as inspiration to become a real-life superhero. As any good superhero would, he chooses a new name — Kick-Ass — assembles a suit and mask to wear, and gets to work fighting crime. There’s only one problem standing in his way: Kick-Ass has absolutely no superpowers.

His life is forever changed as he inspires a subculture of copy cats, meets up with a pair of crazed vigilantes — including an 11-year-old sword-wielding dynamo, Hit Girl (Chloë Moretz) and her father, Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) — and forges a friendship with another fledgling superhero, Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse). But thanks to the scheming of a local mob boss Frank D’Amico (Mark Strong), that new alliance will be put to the test.

With new posters, and taglines (I can’t fly. But I can kick your ass.) cropping up every time you turn around, Lionsgate would prefer this one stays on your mind, and it certainly seems to be working.

You rather expect some marketing crossovers – for example, it’s hard to imagine that Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory doesn’t already have a T-Shirt – but, you also have to wonder how it’s all working so well. Then again, is it all working so well?

Do people just like to spit out new posters? Do they just like to say Kick-Ass, whether they’re interested in the movie or not? Or, is it going to translate into ticket sales?

What do you think?