Kingsman: The Secret Service has to be in the conversation of one of the biggest surprises to come out in theaters not only for it being based on a comic-book series, but the movie gave face lift for the genre by combining James Bond, with the gadgets and action set pieces, and a similar dose Austin Powers by being somewhat of a satirical comedy and poking fun at the genre as a whole. The first Kingsman movie, and especially its sequel The Golden Circle, are ridiculous over the top action spy movies, that still provide great characters, tons of fun and a unique visual style. With both being directed by Matthew Vaughn, he wonderfully took a property, brought it into the mainstream public eye and created a deliriously fun and engaging movie. The Secret Service is by far the best one in the franchise because while it is crazy and ridiculous, it’s still a very subdue in a lot of aspects. Its sequel, The Golden Circle, kind of lost its mojo. There’s things that don’t work in The Golden Circle. It chooses to go bigger instead of better, the stuff with Elton John is too much on the nose and it’s a little too long for my taste. Nevertheless, it’s still tons of fun that still packs with great action, neat visuals and terrific performances from Taron Egerton and Mark Strong. It’s no where near as tight and good as The Secret Service, but it still features similar sensibilities that the first one has.
Until we get a third Kingsman movie, Vaughn and 20th Century Studious decided to take the franchise down a different path and tell a story how the Kingsman organization came to what we now know it as today with The King’s Man. What’s even more interesting about The King’s Man is that its first delay was made before the events of the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally slated for a Valentine’s Day in 2020, the studio pushed it to avoid the competition with the Sonic the Hedgehog movie, but when the pandemic kicked into full gear, The King’s Man was constantly getting pushed to finally solidifying a release for Christmas in 2021. Having to wait this long was unfortunate but the final product doesn’t deliver on its promises. The King’s Man is the weakest installment in the franchise by a land slide. It features a surprising and refreshing shift on approaching its material more seriously and making more dramatic in certain doses and it beautifully features Matthew Vaughn’s gorgeous hyper stylized action, particularly with the sword play sequences. Ralph Fiennes, by far, gives the most committed and dashing performance. The rest of the movie, from the supporting characters, shift in its narrative structure or any other mechanisms felt unusual for this film series.
Set in the early 20th century and the brink of WWI, The King’s Man simply tells the story of how the Kingsman agency, what is also looked at as a tailor shop, became a secret and rogue organization, during a time when political masterminds and war tyrants got together to plot a war that could wipe out the very existence of humanity.
Despite what some would say about The Golden Circle, it still kept that fresh take and pleasure that The Secret Service had and both movies together felt one and the same. Both were generally strong hits at the box office, and there’s still room and excitement for a third consecutive movie. What’s disappointing is that The King’s Man is a sign that maybe this franchise has lost its novelty and maybe this was a franchise that could be looked at as a one hit wonder. Not to say that The King’s Man is an incompetent mess, but where some found The Golden Circle to be a massive step down in quality, this origin story takes the cake. By centering the movie in a more period piece approach gave the more flavor and an interesting way of capturing history. But just like a great franchise that evolves itself and creatures sub-genres within its own genre, the biggest thing is consistency. The King’s Man does feature similar sensibilities from the other two movies, but it’s an inconsistent shift that doesn’t feel all that impressive. It’s nice to see a more heavy and dramatic approach with this movie that’s not that prominently featured in the other ones, but in the grand scheme of things it comes as defective.
One credit for The King’s Man is getting actors like Ralph Fiennes on board with projects like this. It was great to get someone like a Colin Firth to do the first two Kingsman movies and Ralph Fiennes brings that exact same level of quality and integrity to this movie that adds more potential for other dramatic actors to come on board for other (and better) movies in this series. He’s the best and most thought out character in this movie and depending how much of the stunt work he performed, he works well in the action. The rest of the cast from Gemma Arterton, Djimon Hounsou and new comer Harris Dickinson eel extremely secondary or not really connected well with the rest of the movie. Rhys Ifans playing the self-proclaimed Grigori Rasputin is maybe the only character that knew the craziness and over the top nature of these movies but like Elton John in The Golden Circle, he took his material a little bit too seriously that the craziness went up too much. The villain in this movie is easily one of the most forgotten and useless characters in recent memory. The character is hardly in the movie, hardly developed and barely relevant to the movie’s narrative.
The other mistake this movie made is not bringing back Henry Jackman as the films composer. Having Matthew Margeson as the composer, who co-composed with Jackman on the previous two flicks, should have been a nice passing the torch moment and it’s not to say that Margeson’s music is bad, it’s more in the sense of how the music feels like a true creation of Henry Jackman. Sadly, it’s missed.
Overall, it’s a fun movie. It’s certainly not better than Secret Service or Golden Circle, which were over the top movies and maybe that’s what the franchise nailed on, from a consistent perspective.
My grade for The King’s Man: C
Zane's take at the Cinema's 