Reviews by:
RATE THIS MOVIE
6
5
4
3
The King's Man is an enjoyable ride of action and espionage, packaged with plenty of flavor. This film isn't necessarily outstanding, but it does have enough craft and style to leave viewers satisfied. Like its predecessors, The King's Man is energized by active camerawork, clever editing, potent sound, and abundant effects. Meanwhile, the story is rich with historical fiction, political intrigue, and central family drama. It's an unusual (and occasionally clunky) combination of hyper combat and hyper emotions, but each aspect is treated with care. Thus, The King's Man has a flashy appearance, built on a sturdy foundation.
Specifically, The King's Man is well paced because it balances story elements and action in interesting doses. It is visually engaging because the camera moves with the action, mixes in various shots (overheads, extreme close-ups, and POVs), and utilizes lighting. The editing is quick during fights, slower during drama, and artistic during transitions. The music and production are stylish takes on the time period. The over-reliance on CGI does undercut the visceral vibe and rugged era, but that's forgivable. Overall, it probably isn't a wide favorite, but The King's Man is a well-rounded flick that's likely to please most audiences.
Writing: 7/10
Direction: 8/10
Cinematography: 9/10
Acting: 8/10
Editing: 8/10
Sound: 8/10
Score/Soundtrack: 7/10
Production Design: 7/10
Casting: 7/10
Effects: 7/10
Overall Score: 7.6/10
For more of my work: https://guskeller.wixsite.com/moviefilmreviews
RATE THIS REVIEW
6
5
4
3
2/5
An origin story about The Kingsman, an elite secret service agency that prioritizes honor almost as much as a well-tailored suit. Orlando Oxford (Fiennes), a pacifist, is forced into action after the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand sparks World War I.
Hyper-violent, stylized, brash, envelope pushing, and wildly entertaining. These are all words that could easily describe 2014’s “Kingsman: The Secret Service.” Inert, trivial, boring, and predictable are unfortunately the applicable adjectives for this misfire of a prequel. It is truly shocking that the same team that created one of the more original and fun film franchises of the past decade could spawn a story that is so unrelentingly dull and meaningless.
Matthew Vaughn had been a consistently inventive voice in Hollywood—providing a subversive take on some big franchises like X-men while also presenting some sleeper hits like Kick-Ass, L4yer Cake, and Stardust. His vision was always unique and his stories were unexpected and gleefully unpredictable. And when the credits rolled after this slog of both visual and narrative mediocrity, I was genuinely surprised and disappointed to see Vaughn’s name attached as the writer and director.
The story here is largely inert and nonsensical as it attempts to shoehorn Kingsman lore into real world events. This might have worked had more thought been put into the story, but the conceit fails—grossly trivializing WWI, European geopolitical conflicts, and the characters of Lenin and Hitler. There are no real surprises here save one truly unexpected moment which briefly reminded me of how good Vaughn can be when firing on all cylinders.
Though it is advertised and billed as an action movie, it has shockingly few action scenes. The ones that do exist are tame, bloodless and generic, offering nothing new to the genre. Ralph Fiennes, Gemma Arterton, Djimon Hounsou, and Harris Dickinson give adequate performances but even their abundance of charisma and wit cannot save this joyless exercise in drudgery.
Hot take: This movie doesn’t just fail in comparison to its predecessors, it fails because it’s a bad movie.
RATE THIS REVIEW
6
5
4
3
Writer-director Matthew Vaughn’s ‘The King’s Man’ is a prequel to its contemporary-set predecessors, depicting the founding of the eponymous private intelligence service amidst the turbulent setting of World War One. Over its 130 minutes we see Ralph Fiennes’ Duke of Oxford attempt to foil the machinations of the mysterious (and most Scottishly-Scottish) Shepherd.
The quick-fire action scenes and sardonic humour that ensured ‘Kingsman: the Secret Service’ success is all present here, as are a collection of strong performances: Fiennes unsurprisingly pulls off the deadly aristocrat with charisma and verve, and Rhys Ifans as Rasputin is eerily good, if at times pushing the grotesque to the limit (I’ll never look at a Bakewell tart the same way again). Gemma Arterton stands out, however, as Polly, the northern Nanny with precision aim, and it’s a shame she isn’t given more to work with.
On the flip side, Oxford’s son Conrad (Harris Dickinson) is bland, with unflinching motivations to join the war which become nonsensical in light of his experiences as the disorganised story progresses. Characters often contradict their words and actions from a couple of scenes prior to service the messy plot. Additionally, the historical revisionism on which the plot relies is taken to ridiculous extremes, pulling us out of the film altogether at times.
Worst of all, the film just doesn’t seem to know where it stands on the hefty subjects it plays with. The overriding theme is clearly intended to be anti-war, but this message is confused throughout - Vaughn seems to want to both have his cake and eat it. The most egregious example of this is the use of Wilfred Owen’s ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’, which is wilfully misattributed and misinterpreted in a manner which is nothing short of offensive. The ultimate result of all this is a story with no focus, propelled by a forgettable antagonist to an unsatisfactory conclusion.
In short, if you’re after a couple of hours of relatively witty dialogue and snappy action scenes, but don’t mind shutting off some brain cells in the process, ‘The King’s Man’ might be for you.
⭐️⭐️
RATE THIS REVIEW
6
5
4
3
Comments