Packing more punch

The legendary Pinewood Studios is playing host to Kick-Ass 2. The filming of the sequel to Matthew Vaughn's surprise 2010 hit, adapted from Mark Millar's ultra-violent comic about teenage masked vigilante "heroes", is in full flow. English actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson - returning as the green-and-yellow wetsuited Kick-Ass - is being held by two goons as his old foe Red Mist (reprised by Christopher Mintz-Plasse) punches him. You feel like shouting "Kerpow!"

We're in a cavernous warehouse decorated with red drapes and surrounded by a plethora of boy toys - video-game machines, pool tables, a drum kit, a bucking bronco and shiny new sports cars. It's an adolescent evil lair belonging to Red Mist, who now calls himself The Mother F***er, offering early proof that Kick-Ass 2 has no intention of toning down the more controversial elements of the original. Vaughn's film received criticism for its x-rated language - not least coming from Kick-Ass' ally, Hit Girl.

Played by American actress Chloe Grace Moretz, who was just 12 years old when she shot the role, the high-kicking Hit Girl typified Kick-Ass' irreverent attitude to violence and codes of acceptable behaviour. "In the last film - and I counted - I only cussed six times in the movie, but each time was really pivotal and it meant something," says Moretz, now 16. "And in Kick-Ass 2 it's the same - it's not like she just drops it all the time because she's older."

Moretz, whose star power has increased thanks to roles in Martin Scorsese's Hugo (2011) and Tim Burton's Dark Shadows (2012), is well aware that it was Kick-Ass that kicked her career into gear. The 2010 Anglo-American superhero action comedy made US$96 million globally upon its cinema release - turning her and Taylor-Johnson, in particular, into stars.

Whenever she encounters fans, she's made patently aware of this. "They freak out!" Moretz cries. "They're like 'Oh my God, can you hit me or something?! Can you punch me in the face?!'"

If you're a parent, or simply someone concerned about the pervasive influence of screen violence on young children, then you might be concerned at this. But Moretz and her co-stars seem well-adjusted. "I don't cuss in my own time," she says. "It's not a thing that I do - my mum is not cool with that." That said, the swearing in Kick-Ass 2 is "affecting me so much more than it did when I was younger", she admits. "Now it's like 'Argh!' It's getting into my head!"

With Vaughn taking a backseat as producer for the sequel, it's relatively untested writer-director Jeff Wadlow (2005's Cry_Wolf; 2008's Never Back Down) who is charged with marshalling Kick-Ass 2. A fan of the original, the 37-year-old filmmaker knew exactly where to take the follow-up. "If the first film was about creating an alter ego," he says, "this movie is about figuring out who you really are."