Robert Dora

2021's "The King's Man" does what most other prequels cannot, it restores the emotional heart and quality to what started out as a loved franchise. It even surpasses the first Kingsman film in one key area, with a stirring and ever-present score by frequent composer collaborators Matthew Margeson and Dominic Lewis. Unsurprisingly Ralph Fiennes delivers a fine and heartfelt performance as the film's lead and with 'on-point' supporting performances from Gemma Arterton and others, including particularly good use of accent work by one supporting character (despite the accents of a couple of other supporting characters not working anywhere near as well). Understated central performances amid contextual flamboyance is a hallmark of the Vaughan's "Kingsmen" film series (echoing the early Bond films from which they were inspired) which is very successful when the right balance is struck, and fortunately that occurs and works a treat in this film (something that the series' 2nd film (2017's "Kingsman: The Golden Circle") did not achieve as well as this film or the series' 1st film, being 2014's delightful "Kingsman: The Secret Service"). The film's script and lead actor had a very tough task in somehow having the lead character's story arc and emotional weight equal both the lead and main supporting roles (as brilliantly portrayed by Taron Edgerton and Colin Firth), without which this film would not have worked, but fortunately the script was absolutely up to that task and of course so was the wonderful Ralph Fiennes. Despite the central 'heart' of this film working well and thus being a clear improvement on the over indulgences present in "The Gold Circle" (namely with regard to the 'gore' factor and the frivolous plan and motivations of the central villain of that 2nd film) one central death does not quite feel as 'earned' or as climactic as is could have been (but without spoiling anything I dare not explain any more). And even though this film has less gore and use of particular profanity than the 2nd film its use of both is still primarily gratuitous and not handled deftly as in the series' 1st film, where they were used as colourful exclamation points that did not lesten the overall enjoyment of the scenes in which they were in. That being said, with this installment director Vaughan certainly seems to have mostly learned from the unfortunate story failings of "The Golden Circle" (even though I for one didn't think that that film was 'bad' per say but simply missed the mark in several key respects) and as such makes this viewer more hopeful and excited for the next film in the series, which it appears will be a continuation of the 'modern' timeline started in the first two films. The one thing that makes me sad is that due to "The King's Man" performing disappointingly at the box office (which wasn't helped by the film's poorly chosen close release proximity to "Spider-Man: No Way Home") it appears that we won't get a continuation of this film's core 'prequel' team as presented at its end, which is a very big shame (although it wouldn't surprise me if Vaughan tries to briefly incorporate them in a flashback scene in the series' next planned film or television productions). Despite it being centimetres off of earning a 4 out of 5 Stars rating in the opinion this particular viewer, "The King's Man" is a solid, slick and constantly entertaining film that at the very least deserves a viewing (if one can handle a few moments of gore and gratuitous violence) by anyone who enjoyed the series' first film and who enjoy this genre in general.

A fun, surprising, slick and very well scripted and acted film. Totally underserving of the generally awful reviews and very negative press that the film received around and leading up to its release. Review: 3.5 / 5 Stars