I like Defendor a great deal more than Kick Ass. Woody Harrelson's Arthur Poppington is the genuine article good samaritan against sane judgment. Only part of my relative preference is due to Defendor sticking with a world of realistic physics rather than setting that up and then eschewing it as Kick Ass does. That isn't to say that I disliked Kick Ass.
The thing is that KA falls into the wish fulfillment subset that never see the stakes raised. I never felt that the hero wouldn't emerge triumphant, not for a moment. Come to think of it, that's how I felt about the army of drone bots in Iron Man 2. Everything in KA lives in a heightened reality: the physics, the motivations, all of it. I liked it within the rules it set up and bent, I did, but there was no suspense to the whole endeavor (and that isn't because I read the comic...I didn't).
Defendor is more of a success in the respect of it being a compelling "regular guy becomes a vigilante and gets his ass kicked a lot" story. I didn't really give a shit about the hero of Kick Ass after a point. I was much more interested in the complexity of Big Daddy and Hit Girl. Harrelson's Arthur/Defendor never lost me for a moment.
Maybe I loved this because the bad guy's name is Captain Industry. Maybe I just dug Harrelson's "Bale Batman Voice". Maybe it was the WWI trench club, or maybe it was the well-intentioned, gentle texture that is missing from so many comic book heroes. The other guys were all painted with the same broad-shouldered brush in the 60's and 70's, and that's the reason so many comic movies have a homogenized plot, hero, and structure.
Kat Dennings and Elias Koteas are both also in top form. Dennings I'd only seen in House Bunny and Shorts previously, but here she actually has something to work with.
Netflix it, RedBox it, rent or buy Defendor in whatever flavor you prefer. This is "comic book hero" cinema that enriches the field rather than simply retread things with a glossy CG sheen. It's yet another triumph for Harrelson, and a credit to all involved. Sony released it last month, and Amazon has it for $21.49, and I'd classify it a safe blind buy if you're the type. The DVD includes deleted scenes, outtakes, a bundle of featurettes, and a commentary track with Harrelson, Dennings, the producer, and the writer/director. This was a great discovery for me.