‘The King’s Man’ Review (Disney+)
Stars: Ralph Fiennes, Gemma Arterton, Rhys Ifans, Djimon Hounsou, Charles Dance, Matthew Goode, Daniel Bruhl, Harris Dickinson | Written by Matthew Vaughn, Karl Gajdusek | Directed by Matthew Vaughn
The first Kingsman movie, The Secret Service, almost came out of nowhere and became one of my favourite movies. Of course, I’d already loved Matthew Vaughns films previously (especially Kick-Ass) but Kingsman felt like something completely new, something I’d never seen before. A few years later and its sequel The Golden Circle was bigger, bolder and a lot more ridiculous. It wasn’t as well-liked though, although Elton John role aside, I really enjoyed it. A further three films have been announced for the franchise, with the first The King’s Man, a prequel to the previous movies set in the early 1900s.
Once again this franchise brings along a star-studded and excellent cast. Included here are Ralph Fiennes (in the ‘Colin Firth’ role I guess), Gemma Arterton, Rhys Ifans, Djimon Hounsou, Charles Dance, Matthew Goode and Daniel Bruhl. Some do better than others but generally everyone is, at worst, decent. Fiennes is unsurprisingly great, as is Hounsou – who seems to be in everything I see him in. Dodgy accent aside, Arterton is good but doesn’t get much screen time which could also be said about Bruhl, who I wish we saw more of. Ifans, who I’m not always a huge fan of, might just put in the best performance of all of them as the mad and twisted Rasputin. It must have been a fun role to play and it’s the kind of character that the Kingsman films are best at portraying. Ones that are larger than life and, well, a bit silly.
The franchise, and this addition to it, is actually at its best when it’s silly. Maybe silly is the wrong word but when things get a bit more ludicrous. There are some fantastic scenes in The King’s Man, some of the best of all three movies. My favourite might just be Rasputin in a glorious dance/fight with Shola (Hounsou), Conrad (Harris Dickinson) and Orlando (Fiennes). It is expertly choreographed and leans just enough into that silliness with a perfect score alongside it. Another fight scene is almost as good but completely different as we see Conrad on the battlefields of World War I (or the franchise’s version of it) as he fights some gas-masked killers. It’s shot beautifully, is as gory as you’d hope and once again has a perfect score alongside it.
Fight scenes aside, there are also plenty of over the top scenes too, like when Orlando has to leap out of his aircraft and climb a mountain he lands on the side of. These are the moments I remember and love about the franchise. Unfortunately in The King’s Man, I wasn’t as hooked on the story surrounding it all, I was just kind of waiting for each action scene to come by, so it’s lucky that there is at least plenty of them!
Like the other films, The King’s Man delivers plenty of surprises and rarely goes the direction you are expecting it to, and it is of course all the better for that. This doesn’t quite reach the heights of the first film or the outrageous moments of the second but it looks better than both and with Fiennes and Ifans on top form it is not to be missed. Three films in and I’m happy there are another two coming in this original and highly entertaining franchise.
**** 4/5
The King’s Man is available on Disney+ now, it’s also still playing in some UK cinemas.
