Matthew Vaughn’s Kick-Ass received its European premiere last night, and suffice to say it… well, we won’t finish that sentence, but you can probably guess, can’t you?
Word on Vaughn’s hilarious and vibrant superhero flick has been building steadily for some time, but even Empire was a little taken aback to find hundreds of fans lining along the red carpet outside the Empire Leicester Square – until we saw a grey-bearded man signing autographs, and realised that Brad Pitt, here in his guise as one of the movie’s producers, was in town.
If anything, Pitt’s presence only added to the air of giddy anticipation in and around the auditorium, as the movie’s stars – Aaron Johnson, Chloe Grace Moretz, Mark Strong and Christopher Mintz-Plasse, plus Vaughn and his co-writer, Jane Goldman – mingled with fans dressed as superheroes (including more than a few Kick-Ass wannabes).
Vaughn made a brief speech before the film began – on calling Chloe to the stage, he mentioned the Daily Mail shitstorm surrounding her character, the eleven year-old killer, Hit-Girl, before saying, “it’s not her fault. I’ll take all the blame!” – but quickly vacated the stage, letting the movie speak for itself. Which it did, and then some. Our five-star review is already up, as you know, but if anything, **Kick-Ass **was even better this time around, with a packed audience responding to every action beat and every outrageous gag with gusto. It could be this year’s word-of-mouth champion – but find out for yourself when it opens in cinemas from tomorrow.