Has this become obsolete because of _Deadpool_ and _The Boys_? Maybe, it’s certainly not as effective when it comes to deconstructing superhero tropes. However, there’s also this 2000s indie feel to this that still makes it stand out, half of the time you’d think Edgar Wright directed this in between his _Scott Pilgrim_ lunch breaks. The style and action are the two things that definitely still hold up, the editing is very sleek and the lighting/colour grade have that distinct Matthew Vaughn vibe. The action is also very well put together, lots of good, visceral choreography and the scenes with the scene stealing Hit-girl are easily the film’s best moments. In fact, whenever Moretz and Cage are on the screen, the movie really comes to life to me. I’m less into the material that’s given to Taylor-Johnson and Strong, both of those characters fit a lot of typical tropes and the performers aren’t bringing anything special to it. They should’ve pushed a little further, because half of the time it isn’t satirizing or twisting the thing, it’s just conventionally doing the thing. For example, you could cut out the romance subplot without losing much of note, as there’s nothing special about those scenes. Overall, this is perhaps not aging as well as some of Vaughn’s other work due to how exhausted this genre became in the years following it. Still, I do prefer it over the vast majority of modern superhero films because it feels like something that’s made for a specific audience and doesn’t look like grey sludge.

6/10