Just last Friday, I had the pleasure of seeing an 11-year-old girl take down five thugs twice her size and more than twice her weight, armed with nothing more than a Darth Maul-like sword and a butterfly knife. I saw “Kick-Ass.”

This movie, of course, is under attack from parenting groups, even from Australia, in an effort to protect their children. Oh, and mind you, the movie is entirely fictional.

Let me say that the movie is glorious, but if you think your children are going to waltz into the theater and see a light, fluffy Spiderman or Fantastic Four-like superhero flick, you are dead wrong. “Kick-Ass” is dark, bloody and boy, it is foul!

The film takes a look at vigilantism through the eyes of believable, ordinary characters: a high school student, an 11-year-old girl and her ex-cop father. The high school student, Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson), is an ordinary boy with no tragic reason for vigilantism. He just wants to see what it’s like to be a superhero since nobody has tried it.

The girl, Mindy Macready (Chloe Grace Moretz), has been trained to use firearms and a variety of knives and swords by her father, Damon Macready (Nicolas Cage), an ex-cop who has a big bone to pick with Frank D’Amico (Mark Strong), a New York mob boss.

Now, one item the aforementioned parenting groups are objecting to is violence. Sure, it’s violent, I’ll give you that. But the violence works in the context of the film. When he’s out on his first “mission” as a Kick-Ass, Dave gets knocked around, stabbed in the gut and hit by a car. See? Not fun, but it’s realistic.

Later on, when Dave goes to confront a drug addict at his place of residence, he’s about to be beaten to a pulp until Mindy, as Hit Girl, shows up and literally butchers the druggie and his compatriots. Yes, the violence is necessary to the plot, though it is a bit over the top, which is … you know, funny! It’s not every day that you can howl in delight while watching an 11-year-old girl massacre five older males with grisly flair.

The aforementioned parenting groups are also going on about the language. Dear parenting groups, the film is rated R for a reason. A few reasons, actually, but still, when you go see a rated R movie, you expect to hear salty language. It’s mentioned in the warnings before movie trailers, after all. And before you go ballistic over the fact that a 13-year-old girl playing an 11-year-old girl is tossing around the “F-bomb” and two vulgar “C-words,” Ms. Moretz has already rebutted your attacks.

She was quoted as saying “If I ever uttered one word that I said in ‘Kick-Ass,’ I would be grounded for years! I’d be stuck in my room until I was 20! I would never in a million years say that. I’m an average, everyday girl.” I guess she beat you to the punch there.

So, if you are a parent, please think before sending your child to the movies. Instead of throwing a hissy fit at those involved with the film after your child comes home and decides to try and reenact some of the fight scenes and quote the film to no end, treat them to some lighter fare, like that recent dragon flick.

And if your children say anything about being a superhero, just make sure they haven’t been near any nuclear power plants or strong X-rays recently. You know, just in case.