by Nick Ferro, Contributing Writer
Like most people, I was late to the party on the first Kingsman movie. When it was initially released, I thought the trailers made it look dumb and uninteresting. It didn’t help that the trailer was put in front of every movie starting the summer of 2014 and going all the way until its mid-February release the following year. I ended up seeing it the next summer at home and was kicking myself for having been so wrong and missing it in theaters. A trend that I have since dubbed “John Wicking a movie.” The idea was not only fresh and fun, but also added a comedic edge to the modern spy genre that both Bond and Bourne lacked. The sequel, while definitely a step down from the original, was still fun and introduced the idea that there was an American version of the British “secret service.” It added a fun dynamic and world building opportunity that many movies don’t take advantage of when making a sequel. So when they announced we would be getting a prequel to the Kingsman franchise I was excited and confused. Why would you not round out your trilogy with characters that we have come to know and love? Or was this a play to emulate the superhero genre of creating an expanded universe of films that live in the same world, but aren’t necessarily connected? Whatever the reason for the change in setting, when the cast list was announced I was excited. I then began to hear rumors that this movie was actually a World War I drama that they decided to convert into a Kingsman movie. I never found out if those rumors were true, but it felt like they had a fun idea planned. Then the trailers started showing around summer of 2019 for a November release and they looked great! Here I thought seeing the same trailer for six months in 2014 was bad… It is now two years later than the original release date, and after seeing the same trailer over and over and over and over for two years, The King’s Man is finally hitting theaters! So was two years of the same trailer on repeat in front of every movie available worth it? I think so; let’s discuss.
The King’s Man is set in the early days leading up to, and then traveling throughout, the events of World War I. Ralph Fiennes stars as Orlando Oxford, a rich former solider turned pacifist who has raised his son Conrad (Harris Dickinson) in a sheltered life after the death of his wife. Oxford appears the quiet reserved type who will stop at nothing to keep his son from being harmed by the outside world the same way he lost his wife. He puts on a public persona of reserved disinterest of anything in the political landscape. Of course, that is all a cover for his secret network of spies that he’s created with the help of his son’s nanny Polly (Gemma Arterton) and his chauffeur Shola (Djimon Hounsou), and which consist of nannies, housekeepers, butlers, and maids. Together they use the intelligence they’ve gathered to assist the king in all matters of the state. But when World War I breaks out, they are drawn into the conflict, which leads them to the discovery of a secret organization with the intent on controlling the war and bringing England to its knees. And thus begins a tale of two movies.
Whether the rumors of World War I script being converted into a Kingsman prequel is true or not, that’s really at its core what The King’s Man feels like. The first movie is an incredibly emotional and well shot World War I drama that tells the tale of a well-off father and son who suffered the tragedy of losing a wife and mother when the boy was young. The father wants to keep the promise he made to his dying wife to keep their son safe from the horrors of the world. The son, now a man ready to experience the world, feels a sense of duty to serve his country for a war that everyone he knows is joining. The father knows the horror of war, and although he tries to do everything in his power to keep his son out of it, he ultimately fails. The son, so steadfast in his resolve to become a man and prove his worth, must learn the hard way the lessons his father was trying to teach him. If this sounds like an engrossing story worth seeing, then you are correct, because it was a very compelling journey. The wartime imagery reminded me a great deal of 1917, my favorite movie of 2019. Granted, this is nowhere near the quality of 1917, but it certainly did a great job of capturing the same feeling of how the first world war was terrible and tragic.
The second movie is a crazy Tarantino-esque alternate history spy movie along the lines of a Roger Moore era Bond film, and is much more in line with the previous two Kingsman movies. There’s a secret evil organization with a leader that stays in the shadow as his minions whisper in the ears of world leaders and control them through coercion and blackmail. When our heroes discover this plot, it takes them Russia where their mission is to assassinate Rasputin (Rhys Ifans). Rasputin is your classic Kingsman villain, and Ifans lives up to the tradition set by Samuel L. Jackson and Julianne Moore of turning in a completely unhinged performance that includes licking Fiennes’ leg, vomit, and a crazy sword fight of spinning and dancing. In addition to Rasputin, there are fun action scenes, sword and gun fights, as well as life-saving goats! It’s really everything you would come to expect for a movie with words ‘king’s’ and ‘man’ in the title.
These two incredibly different movies, in terms of quality and enjoyment, on their own are both top notch. I truly had a fun time with the zany action spy movie, and I was emotionally affected by the serious war drama. The problem is that these two very different movies felt at odds. If you’ll indulge me with a Star Trek reference, it felt like two movies were in a gruesome transporter accident which fused them together creating one entity where there should be two. Like Captain Janeway’s feelings for Tuvix, I can’t help but feel like The King’s Man would have been better off if these two disparate movies were not combined. The movie bounces from deadly serious to Fiennes getting licked by a mountain goat. I really enjoyed everything the movie had to offer, but I use different parts of my brain for different genres, and the part that loves to have fun is not the same part that enjoys being emotionally vulnerable in the face of tragedy and devastation. So trying to bounce back and forth between the two different styles really had me doing mental gymnastics to accept everything being thrown at me. This is the type of movie that I expect to polarize audiences, and if they go into it with the action heavy trailers in mind, they will be very turned off by the seriousness that half of this movie offers.
Performance-wise, everyone is doing exactly what they need throughout, no matter the tone. When they needed to be goofy and absurd, they were. When they needed to be emotional and serious, they were. I can’t think of a single performance that stood out as either distracting or out of place. The villains were over-the-top, the heroes were charming, and it all worked. Matthew Vaughn’s direction was also quite incredible. The man knows how to shoot an action scene, and not just any action, but fun and creative action. In addition to the aforementioned Rasputin fight, which is incredibly fast paced and thrilling, there is a knife fight in the middle of a battlefield where the characters have to be quiet that is so kinetic and well-choreographed that was one of my favorite moments of the film. I’m pretty sure Vaughn puts a GoPro on a sword for the fight at the end of the film, and it was really cool to see the fight from the sword’s perspective.
Was The King’s Man worth the countless delays? I think so, for being bombarded with the same trailer again and again for literally years I still went in and had a relatively good time. I am interested to see how this movie holds up after repeat viewings as well. I can say for certain that I hope they put an asterisk on this one because of the pandemic and releasing it the same week that Spider-Man and The Matrix 4. The potential for more “prequel-sequels” is quite high, and I am very excited to see where this franchise goes for both Eggsy’s story as well as this new fun cast of characters.
Grade: B-
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