I was excited for Kingsman: The Secret Service when it was announced because I was in the mood for a spy movie and Colin Firth has yet to do anything that I haven’t liked. I wasn’t, however, ready for the type of movie it ended up being. What I thought was going to be a simple action espionage thriller turned out to be much more. I liked it enough to see it twice in the span of two days. Why did I like it so much? Stay tuned to find out.
Spy movies are a genre all their own. They may be part action, part thriller, and may sometimes have romance or comedy spiced into the mix, but they’re unique in what we’ve come to expect. The masterminds behind the Kingsman comic and movie knew exactly what fans of spy films were going to expect and made all the right changes to turn what could have been a forgettable movie into a self aware, action packed, funny, charming, and beautifully presented film. Though it is self aware, Kingsman never gets preachy. The commentary it makes is on what people like about spy movies and then it turns around to deliver that and more. Kingsman gets about as self aware as a movie can get without breaking the fourth wall. There are a few scenes where some of the characters are talking about spy movies and you can tell that the comments they make, while directed towards each other, are meant for the audience.
The main story revolves around the young man named Eggsy (Taron Egerton) and the trails he must pass to become a Kingsman. At the same time Galahad (Colin Firth) is attempting to find out who’s behind a recent string of kidnappings. All the while Valentine (Samuel L Jackson) is trying to complete a plan that would devastate the world. I’m not going to go any further into the plot because you can easily watch the trailer and get the big picture. What you can’t get though is how funny the movie is without being an outright comedy. I saw this movie the day it came out with some of my friends (I know, I’m late again.) and we’re still quoting the movie to this day.
Colin Firth, Michael Caine, Samuel L Jackson, and Mark Strong were all impressive as usual. What’s more is that three of those men have British accents which means they could read out of the dictionary for a hour and I’d listen intently. Colin Firth had a very impressive level of complexity that bubbles underneath the surface and rises to the top at a few key moments where he shows a nice range of emotions. Some of the best scenes in the movie involved conversations between Galahad (Firth) and Valentine (Jackson) as well as some hilarious lines delivered by Eggsy (Egerton) and Merlin (Strong). I have no complaints about the performances and I only have one complaint about the characters. I wish we got more out of the two ladies. We only got enough of them to show that they were important supporting roles but I feel like more could have been done with them. Gazelle (Sophia Boutella) played Valentine’s assistant/trigger woman and we hardly learned anything about her. The same goes for Roxy (Sophie Cookson) who plays one of the Kingsman candidates. Her character was developed a bit more than Gazelle, but I still feel like an opportunity was wasted with her.
Kingsman is based off a comic made by the same people who did Kickass. I wasn’t a huge fan of Kickass because I thought it was too violent. I feel weird saying that as I’m an avid fan of the Saw series but with Kickass the level of violence didn’t quite fit and turned me off from enjoying it. Kingsman is able to walk that line better. It gets pretty violent but never to such a level that I was taken out of the movie. There were also some blatant sexual jokes but they were done with just the right amount of cheek to avoid being crass.
The film also ends perfectly so a sequel could easily be made, but if they decide to leave perfection alone, nothing would feel incomplete. When all is said and done Kingsman is a fantastic movie that I will buy the moment it comes out so I can watch it again right away.The few negatives are dwarfed by the shining positives. More people in the industry should take a lesson from Kingsman. It made me laugh and smile and walk away beaming. It’s not going to win any Oscars, but does it have to? It brought priceless entertainment to me and my friends and personally I believe that’s worth more than any award.
Kingsman gets an 11 out of 11.