“Kingsman: The Secret Service” is a hyper violent, crude, in your face at all times and a somewhat interesting movie. This flick is full of twists and turns that really amount to nothing, and the end isn’t really paid off in a satisfactory way.
“Kingsman: The Secret Service” is ‘James Bond’ on steroids. It takes everything we have come to love about spy pictures, and really ups the ante and ups the level of outlandish violence.
“Kingsman” has some wonderful performances throughout. Colin Firth, Michael Caine, and a hilarious Samuel L. Jackson, who makes a few interesting choices in his character of Valentine. That speech impediment of his at first threw audiences off, but it was done with class and the tongue and cheek nature of it, shouldn’t offend too many people.
However, the real standout in this film is that of the young Taron Egerton as “Eggsy” he is bold, brash, and ballsy throughout the entirety of this well made film. He has the quality of an actor that makes you not just believe in his character, but believe that he can carry this entire movie on his shoulders. I expect to see more of this fine young actor in years to come. Mark Hamil and Mark Strong are sublime in their supporting roles, and it was a real shock to see Hamil play such an avuncular character. He is fun, funny and plays that professor character a little off kilter, and it works perfectly, for this movie.
The biggest issue with this film isn’t the direction, Matthew Vaughn does a pretty great job with the over exaggerated and highly stylized action and violence. The issue is the predictable plot that really isn’t paid off at the end. The film has moments of intrigue and interest and the overall tone of the script is smart and witty. The dialogue is sharp and snappy too. However, just the story and the narrative are pretty plain, and nothing really leaps out at you during the viewing of this film. The pace of the movie feels off as well. There are moments of true joy and adventure, but more often than not there are long arduous mundane scenes that simply slow the movie down. The story doesn’t zip through, like a usual Vaughn flick would.
The strangest problem with this film other than the story is that score, feels and sounds pretty similar to the score from “XMen: First Class” Henry Jackman who has scored a few of Matthew Vaughn’s previously movies like “XMen: First Class” plays up the score and make its sound almost identical to that wonderfully made XMen film. It is bizarre to hear both of those scores and to feel and hear the similar tones, and themes that Jackman weaves through both of those movies. It was distracting and if you happened to notice it, you would have been taken out of the movie for a few moments, scratching your head. Asking yourself where you have heard this music before.
The action that is played up is the usual sort of action you come to be familiar with when you see the pairing of comic book writer and legend Mark Millar and Matthew Vaughn when they collaborate on film projects. Vaughn does an amazing job with the overall highly stylized action, and the overall performances, but this movie lacks in a robust and awe-inspiring climax that this movie so desperately deserves. The CGI in moments during the final minutes really should have been worked on a bit more before it made it onto the big screen. The ending of this film really left so much to be desired. Entire characters didn’t get the pay off that they deserved within their story arch. With that being said there is potential in this movie franchise, if “Kingsman” gets a sequel. Hopefully, if there is a sequel in the future they make that film much more exciting then this film.
B-