With his son Conrad yearning to fight in the trenches, Duke Orlando Oxford (Ralph Fiennes) reveals that he is part of a secret underground organisation dedicated to protecting King and country, hoping that Conrad will opt to join his team of spies rather than enlist in the army.
Tonally, The King's Man is all over the place.
The film starts out like a boring Wednesday afternoon history lesson, with forty minutes of early 20th-century European politics relayed in a dreary manner that'll have many reaching for the off switch. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, the film goes completely crazy as Grigory Rasputin (Rhys Ifans) enters the fray, shaking things up with some perverse thigh licking and a bizarre fight scene against Orlando, the mad monk whirling and twirling into battle, combining exhilarating swordplay with cossack dancing to breathtaking effect.
Next, director Matthew Vaughn shifts the tone to grim reality, depicting the horrors of WWI, as Conrad Oxford finally volunteers to serve his country at the front. This part is similar to Sam Mendes' 1917, Conrad leading a daring mission into no-man's land to retrieve vital information from an injured British spy. A night-time encounter with enemy soldiers is brutal, bloody and realistic- a far cry from the comic-book violence of the previous Kingsmen movies-and Vaughn concludes this part of the film with an unexpected shock.
A bit more dull history follows, but the film picks up pace for the finalé in which our heroes storm the mountain top fortress of the cabal who have been plotting to control Europe. It's a fun finish to this uneven film, the final act delivering plenty of the R-rated Boy's Own-style action and adventure that fans of the series will have been expecting.
As muddled as the film is, I actually wound up having a lot of fun with The King's Man: the rather boring history parts prove to be a necessary evil for understanding the plot, and the rest of the movie feels like several films rolled into one, providing more bang for your buck. And at the end of the day, we surely have to be grateful for the the fact that Elton John is nowhere to be seen.
6.5/10. Rounded up to 7 for IMDB.
Tonally, The King's Man is all over the place.
The film starts out like a boring Wednesday afternoon history lesson, with forty minutes of early 20th-century European politics relayed in a dreary manner that'll have many reaching for the off switch. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, the film goes completely crazy as Grigory Rasputin (Rhys Ifans) enters the fray, shaking things up with some perverse thigh licking and a bizarre fight scene against Orlando, the mad monk whirling and twirling into battle, combining exhilarating swordplay with cossack dancing to breathtaking effect.
Next, director Matthew Vaughn shifts the tone to grim reality, depicting the horrors of WWI, as Conrad Oxford finally volunteers to serve his country at the front. This part is similar to Sam Mendes' 1917, Conrad leading a daring mission into no-man's land to retrieve vital information from an injured British spy. A night-time encounter with enemy soldiers is brutal, bloody and realistic- a far cry from the comic-book violence of the previous Kingsmen movies-and Vaughn concludes this part of the film with an unexpected shock.
A bit more dull history follows, but the film picks up pace for the finalé in which our heroes storm the mountain top fortress of the cabal who have been plotting to control Europe. It's a fun finish to this uneven film, the final act delivering plenty of the R-rated Boy's Own-style action and adventure that fans of the series will have been expecting.
As muddled as the film is, I actually wound up having a lot of fun with The King's Man: the rather boring history parts prove to be a necessary evil for understanding the plot, and the rest of the movie feels like several films rolled into one, providing more bang for your buck. And at the end of the day, we surely have to be grateful for the the fact that Elton John is nowhere to be seen.
6.5/10. Rounded up to 7 for IMDB.