The King's Man (2021)

Their Use of Spacing and Apostrophe Confounds Me

Overall confusion but general appreciation for this movie.

I love this movie series. It’s fun, visually appealing, and has some amazing fight sequences with a massive, moving cast of extras attacking our protags.

HOWEVER. This love does not shield this particular movie from the overwhelming (or perhaps underwhelming) feelings of disappointment I had watching all 2 hours and 11 minutes of this hogwash.

I went in only having watched the trailer and with a vague memory of how the first two movies climaxed, but well aware of this formulating the prequel storyline to get to Eggsy.

Disappointment may be a stretch, but it was a lingering flavor in my mouth because of all the opportunities they had to make this amazing, the story still fell short.

Time to think about why I’m disappointed, but hopefully not wallow in it.

If you’re coming in for an action-packed movie that has Ralph Fiennes in it, then you have come to the right place. As someone who actively looks for and celebrates good storytelling, this wasn’t for me and that’s fine. I still had a good time and that’s what making movies is about.

If I had to dignify my opinion with an explanation, I think the best way is to analyze the parts of the movie I was less than satisfied with:

Character

A father and son moment. Where Fiennes hands Dickinson a gun for safe keeping. I don’t think he knows how to wield a gun at this point TBH.

Character-driven stories are the bread and butter of Hollywood. A good character can be doing nothing but will have people glued to the screen. A poorly derived character can be doing everything and will still manage to put a toddler to sleep.

The main characters here are 2-dimensional and lifeless, despite acting across the screen with much British fervor. I liked their characters enough, but that was about it; they were likable. There was no great character flaw or conflict that explodes into emotional tidbits across the screen and into my soul, they were very posh and dandy and not at all acting like they were in the middle of a war.

There is almost no tension in the first half of the movie because the characters are dancing around each other and refuse to clash (perhaps, again, that British geniality coming into play). There are stakes, but they are so removed and not within reach of the characters that they are almost nonexistent.

War is a gloomy overhang stamped on the entire movie and that did inform their actions, but it was in the broad, vague way you discuss it when you’ve read the Wikipedia page on something and are then forced to debate it in an auditorium full of students.

Doable, but lacking substance.

This was beautiful but felt so unrealistic and reminiscent of Hacksaw Ridge where the war is the main antagonist and is violent and gory and impossible to justify.

“War is hell, but that's not the half of it, because war is also mystery and terror and adventure and courage and discovery and holiness and pity and despair and longing and love. War is nasty; war is fun. War is thrilling; war is drudgery. War makes you a man; war makes you dead.”

—Tim O’Brien in “The Things They Carried”

To me, a war scene isn’t good because of how many bodies ragdoll into the air or how many bombs go off in a scene. A war scene is good because it tentatively probes the subtlety of life, the constant ringing of death overhead, the rank fear on the face of men who thought “it is sweet and pure to die for his country.”

The emotional weight is lost because the characters are pawns and the villain is one man orchestrating this mass murder of youths.

Story

Which teeters into a lack of story.

Rasputin (RIP) had the best fight scene in this movie. They also did him dirty because in reality he was just a man who loved sex and drugs and was friendly with the Romanovs.

We get glimpses of the antagonist, who is the one pulling the strings to start WWI. An abrasive and manipulative group spread across the world trying to wreak havoc…because of some reason. The villains aren’t established in their motivation so their actions don’t make sense other than being the foil to the protagonists.

As the prequel to the Kingsman movies, the only point connecting them comes in the final 5 minutes, when they actually establish the organization and give each other codenames.

I was expecting the first and second acts to be dropping hints, leaving Easter eggs for us to pick up and revel over as they blossom into the structure of the Kingsman Secret Service.

But they didn’t.

A classic shot. Nothing truly backs it up and it’s left hanging as a one-shot.

Beyond the gentlemanliness and overall dueling prowess, there is nothing pulling us along in the first half to find out how this all comes together. It’s thrown in at the end when it should have been a seed planted from the first scene.

Action

I was not as impressed with the action sequences this time around.

They’re still great, very impressive feats and most definitely a strain on the actors and their stunt doubles and I applaud their abilities in creating such enthralling fight sequences.

But compared to its predecessors (or future successors??), it lacks in charm and execution. The fights aren’t LSD trips of constant and vigorous motion flying across the screen and aren’t as ingenious in their parries/attacks.

It’s definitely lowkey and tasteful in its own way, but lacks a cohesion with the entirety of the film. You could probably cut out the fight scenes, edit around them, and still have the same movie.

Except for the Rasputin scene. I really love this one particular scene LOL

Obviously I’m not the end all be all and this is just my thoughts on the movie. I’d love to continue any discourse in the comments! If you agree, disagree, don’t understand my POV, I’d love to hear it and talk to you about it :)