Movie Review: The King's Man

It's hard to give a confident recommendation to watch The King's Man. If you liked the prior Kingsmen films then there's elements here you will recognise and enjoy, but unlike those films I feel this one has a serious consistency issue in both pace and tone.

The King's Man serves as a prequel to the first two films, with a focus on establishing the roots of the secret agent service during World War 1. The film's main character is Duke Orlando Oxford, a retired red cross war veteran who spends a lot of the movie helping the British government try to quench the risk of conflict and death in the wake of the events of WW1's arrival. Orlando also spends his time trying to keep his son Conrad from enlisting in the war due to his pacifistic ideals. This creates a notable conflict between the two as the film goes forward due to Conrad's desire to fight taking him down different paths to his father. The main antagonist of the movie is called the Shepard and within his organisation he holds key members of his flock that do his bidding across the globe. Some notable members of this flock include Grigori Rasputin,  Erik Jan Hanussen, Gavrilo Princip and Mata Hari. They work together to influence the demise of Britain through political espionage, assassination and blackmail. What the film presents as the core focus is Oxford and co's journey to stop The Shepard and his flock before the stakes boil over and Britain perishes in the wake off the war, all the while trying to keep his son from dying in the trappings of the terrible conflict. 

I think the plot of this film is solid as a concept, but it wasn't delivered all that well in my view. In the way of showing the origins of the Kingsmen agency in a historical setting it works nicely. You have a conventional baddie with his motley crew and they all have interesting characteristics that make them noteworthy and worth taking down; but the way the film get's to taking them down feels all sorts of inconsistent. The reason for this inconsistency for me is Conrad's character arc which I believe to be the weakest element of the movie. The whole idea of Oxford trying to stop his son from enlisting in the war in the wake of Conrad's desire to do his duty and serve for his country derails the film constantly. I'd argue that there are massive chunks of this film's runtime that literally get soaked up into this plotline and it makes the actual overarching narrative with the Shepard feel side-lined constantly. It's done in such a way that it feels like you're watching two different movies arguably. What the film is trying to do with Conrad and the idea of war being this brutal, unfair and all around unheroic wasteland of life, it's a fair message to get across and I respect the film for trying to be anti-war in that regard, but it feels like a plot that would be better off in a movie all on it's own and not a Kingsmen movie. When the film pivots away from Conrad and instead focuses on Oxford and his agents taking on The Shepard and his flock I rather enjoyed it. The spy stuff and action sequences that come of the back of it all stand out as entertaining and compelling to sit through. The major highlight of the film for me was the scenes with Rasputin who steals every single moment with a superb performance by Rhys Ifans. The camera work and choreography to the fights and action hold the typical flair you expect from these films and especially the fight scene with Rasputin which has so much going on you happily get lost in it all. 

When it comes to tone and pacing, it's the same argument I made about the narrative in that Conrad's storyline takes away from both of these aspects. Kingsmen is known to be silly and over the top for the most part but knew how to ground itself when it mattered and add moments of gravity to the story. In The Kings Man's case I feel it constantly took itself too seriously due to the Conrad story arc that you feel a serious amount of tonal whiplash as you work through the film. This by extension creates another issue in that you recognise a visual tone and style found in the other Kingsman films but the narrative tone feels far and away from the typical expectation. Conrad's stuff's biggest impact on the film was the pacing though. Already taking up a good chunk of the beginning of the film leading into the spy-work stuff, there's a point in the film in which the brakes are pulled on the silly action and we get lobbed to a Conrad segment that runs for a good 25 minutes. This segment while thematically solid is the biggest interruption to the films overarching pace and I really didn't like it. The best way to explain it is if you were watching Austin Powers and then suddenly the 2nd arc of the movie it turns into 1914. This tonal shift is one thing, but to soak up so much time out of the movie for it is just as big a crime.

I really enjoyed a lot of the performances in the film for the most part, the cast were putting everything into these roles and they made the scenes so much more enjoyable to watch. Rhys Ifans is putting in 110% into the role of Rasputin and I always appreciate it when an actor can put in such a performance that you can hardly recognise them. Ralph Fiennes really delivered with this film too, His portrayal of Orlando is one layered in multiple emotions and he brings a very dry wit to the movie which does a nice blend of the silly yet serious tone that's expected of the films. I always consider him a strong secondary character actor for the most part but he has shown here that he has the ability to carry a film in a leading role and I hope he get's more opportunities to do so in the future. I'll also give special shout out to Gemma Arterton and Djimon Hounsou who play the roles of Polly and Shola respectively.

As a fan of the prior Kingsmen films, it's hard to recommend this film due to how it deviates from the usual expectation. If you can sit through the tedious Conrad stuff there is a decent and fun film here, it's just a shame you have to suffer through other aspects of the movie to get to it.