The King’s Man (2021) Review

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

When Matthew Vaughn started adapting The Secret Service comic book series, ‘Kingsman’, in the mid 2010s, he arguably redefined himself as an action filmmaker due to each entry being full of newfound exhilaration apart from Kick Ass. With such appraisal, it was definitely an open minded decision to give us a prequel before the possibility of concluding a trilogy.


PLOT


2021’s The King’s Man shows the origin of the fictional agency. Beginning in 1902, aristocrat Duke Orlando Oxford lost his wife Emily (Alexandria Maria Lara) to a sniper attack in the midst of visiting a British concentration camp in South Africa. For the next 12 years, he would keep a dying wish to keep his only son Conrad from seeing war again, who too saw her die. For the following 12 years, he would keep his promise even as he forms a spy network agency and persuade Lord Kitchenener to not let him join the British Army. At the request of the Secretary State of War for both men to accompany Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria & his wife Sophie the Duchess of Hohenberg (Ron Cook & Maja Simonsen) through Sarajevo, only to fail in stopping them be killed by the Bosnian Serb Gavrilo Princip (Joel Basman). When recuperating, Orlando suspects the assassination to be plotted by the ‘The Flock’, a group led by a mysterious ‘Shepherd’ who wants to pit the British, German & Russian empires (each led by the cousin trio of King George V, Kaiser Wilhelm and Tsar Nicholas) against each other for the sake of Scottish independence. The plan does seem to continue forming when one operative, mystic Grigori Rasputin persuades Tsar Nicholas to pull out of the war, which gets reported by Orlando’s cousin Prince Felix Yusupov. Kitchener sets sail to Russia via HMS Hampshire to aid the Western Front, only to be torpedoed by a submarine. Feeling no other choice, Orlando allows Conrad to join him to kill Rasputin in Russia alongside fellow agents Shola and Polly Watkins. They initially try to poison him at a Christmas party hosted by Felix, but when he reveals himself to be immune to cyanide, it leads to a lengthy fight long enough until Polly shoots him. Although respect is given between both father and son for saving each other, Orlando still can’t give his blessing to Conrad for being an agent, resulting in him joining the British Army. British Intelligence does intercept the Zimmermann Telegram that would’ve encouraged Mexico to invade the United States and although Polly deciphers it, President Woodrow Wilson doesn’t plan on joining the war until concrete proof is given. As the Shepherd assigns Vladimir Lenin to overthrow the Tsar and remove Russia from the war, Conrad goes against his dad’s wishes to continue fighting with Grenadier Guards, swapping places with Scottish soldier Lance Corporal Archie Reid, a Black Watch member, and sending him to give that message. At No Man’s Land does Conrad volunteer to retrieve information from a wounded British agent, but is mistaken to be a German spy and is killed for the confusion when a friend of Archie recognizes he’s not here. Although this message would break Orlando’s heart, the information he received did still verify the authenticity of the Zimmermann telegram. When Wilson still refuses to enter the war after all the proof being found, Orlando learns the president to be blackmailed by another agent of the Shepherd, Mata Hari (Valerie Pachner), which footage of being seduced by her. He confirms her to be the enemy when finding her with a similar scarf worn by the Serb. With narrowing down the scarf to come from Switzerland, the plan for Orlando is to get the remaining negative in order to get American on England’s side. When parachuting onto the mountaintop sanctuary does he discover the Shepherd to be Kitchener’s aid de camp Max Morton who faked his death when assassinating the now deceased Secretary State of War. Shola does help Orlando defeat him in combat and Polly retrieves the negative. Giving it to Wilson to destroy ensures him to bring the US into the war. Following the war in which Wilhelm abdicated  
the throne, Orlando would later buy the Kingsman Tailor Shop, naming his organization after it as an official front. Apart from Polly & Shola, the likes of Archie, the US ambassador of UK (Stanley Tucci) and King George V become founding members with King Arthur themed codenames in honor of Conrad; Orlando is given Arthur, Polly is given Galahad, Archie is given Lancelot, Shola is given Merlin, the ambassador is given Bedivere, and King George V is given Percival. The film ends in a post credit cliffhanger where occultist Erik Jan Hanussen takes command of Shepherd’s organization alongside Lenin and Adolf Hitler, the latter who assassinated the Romanov family.


THOUGHTS


I did not doubt Vaughn's capability of helming a prequel since there is always to give for X-Men: First Class, so I think this one hit the ballpark in getting most questions answered on how the agency came to be. There definitely is a different case of energy going here which is a good thing because even if you got an idea where things are gonna go, you're still impressed on how the first journey ends. I can also credit Ben Davis' cinematography due to how each fight scene from beginning to end got me on the edge of my seat. The No Man's Land sequence and that pov shot of Orlando's parachute landing gave me the most chills. Apart from the costume/production design being spot on to the era it's basing itself off of, this entry stands out for Vaughn and cowriter Karl Gajdusek are able to continue expressing the importance of maintaining nobility when it confronting the horrors of war. The Kingsman agency evolved to inherit that motif in order for future agents to raise the standards in being honorable for the greater good and generations forward. However when grief takes a strike, don't let it consume you otherwise you're only gonna lose all the sanity you got left that brought you so far. This is the case when following Ralph Fiennes as Orlando who starts out as the ideal mentor due to knowing how to balance lethality on the job, leaning into being refined as he was getting older. His overprotective behavior towards his son was valid since losing his wife made him constantly worried on what would happen. And while his worst fear did come true, it wasn't all for nothing because Harris Dickinson proved Conrad to be a worthy successor in the time he had, being eager and brave all at once. Considering Djimon Hounsou & Gemma Arterton both of which expressed essential warmth and loyalty as Shola & Polly respectively, it was obvious he grew up in the right crowd. If he wasn't so consistent in fighting the good fight the way he was taught, it's hard to tell if Orlando would have been able to replicate. Nevertheless, their actions validated their codenames by the end of the mission they accomplished. Aaron Taylor Johnson doesn't get much screen time as Archie but the fact Conrad swaps places with him of all people at the time, it solidifies he saw his potential in being under his father's wing to live on with matching resilience. With the Kingsman's first gen being favorable protagonists, it's a given to see a handful of antagonists causing chaos. It was definitely a living highlight to see Rhys Ifans dial it up at every second to be as seductively unhinged possible as Rasputin. It was such a surprise to see that out of him that I almost forgot Tom Hollander played all three cousins. Daniel Bruhl was also interesting when getting to see him be quietly cunning as Hanussen, but it really was Matthew Goode who stirred up the right amount of pot as Shepherd. It was a believable twist for Morton to be the traitor due to how he changed his accent and that was enough to surprise me. He sure fooled me into thinking he had any kind of honor in similar vein to what was shown from Charles Dance as Kitchener because once the truth of his cunning persona was out there, it was a reminder that some of the worst enemies are those you don't expect. Considering he mocked honor throughout and lived without respecting anything, it became a fitting conclusion for him to be stabbed by a goat he abused before getting dropped by Orlando. Since Hanussen took over the Flock, there's no doubt the Kingsman agency held their own. Knowing that they stood tall proves the blessing to keep fighting the good fight. This movie is gonna keep holding well on its own, but there were some stuff that confused me so much that make me still prefer the first film. For instance, I know it's a thing for characters to be late to drive the plot every other time, but what does Shepherd expect with guys like Rasputin having to reach a mountaintop each time? With weather being a factor, you can't control something like that especially in early 1900s. Hell, it's even a miracle he didn't make more copies of the negative if he wanted to maintain the upper hand. Moving on, Orlando was wrong to tell Conrad he has no idea what men are capable of. He saw his mom die and his son was not wrong to remind him just that no matter how protective we know he needs to be. Also, how does having a suicide pill in a ring confirm the serb wasn't acting alone? Yeah it's a given an assassin leads down to that road in most action films involving spy agencies, but if that's true, they should've scouted the area to find a getaway driver if possible or say they got the answer out of him. It's even a grand coincidence for confirmation that Rasputin had one of his own because he should've not left that out of his sight to begin with. And while I don't blame Conrad for shooting the sword off of Rasputin's hand to get a better head shot before it got jammed, I would've aimed for the back too because that's just as effective. I even scratched my head the hardest over how none of the commotion was heard when it came to eliminating him. I then wonder why wasn't the White House get the network extension to officiate Kingsman? If Polly knows most of the household staff are trained in England, this should be a no brainer for her or Orlando to pull off already. I even laugh unnecessarily when it came to the blackmail scenario involving Wilson because it's totally on him to not have the curtains wide open in the freaking Oval Office, let alone how big of a coincidence no one found the camera she stashed in what looked right outside. Lastly, I don't like the ending per se because involving Hitler into the Flock in the cliffhanger forces a similarity to the MCU to create new anticipation. Even if there's no guarantee of a follow up, they should've waited for this reveal for that to have proper development. We know the guy was terrible in reality, but we don't need him instantly for a period piece of an action movie as a main antagonist. A clever cameo like in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade would've done it for me. Ignore this, then you'll still identify The King's Man as a prequel that remains crafty enough to deliver on being entertaining overall. If you have deep satisfaction for the first two, check this out when you have the time.