Movie Review(s): The Kingsman Series
Photo by 20th Century Studios
It may be unfair or ambitious to review a three-part film series in one entry, but I believe that it is important to provide an overarching assemblage of irreverent humor and sobering morbidity in order to fully appreciate the individual film. In other words: I don’t think you can hear about one of the films in the Kingsman Series without acknowledging the role it plays in the Vaughn-assembled cinematic world.
Photo by IMBD
As of right now, the series consists of films Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015), Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017), and the most recent addition, The King’s Man (2021). All three films are adapted from the comic book series by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons and have featured Matthew Vaughn as director and scriptwriter with co-writers Jane Goldman (2015 and 2017) and Karl Gajdusek (2021). Vaughn, an English director, producer, and screenwriter, also holds credits for the cinematic masterpieces that are Stardust (2007), Kick-Ass (2010), and X-Men: First Class (2011). That resume should tell you all you need to know about what to expect from the Kingsman series.
The first film Kingsman: The Secret Service, sets the standard for the series. Created to be a “fun spy movie,” Vaughn relies heavily on the structure of a James Bond parody in the creation of the film. With props similar to the early days of Bond, think Connery in Goldfinger—cool cars, suave action scenes, and, of course, the elegant suits. In fact, the Kingsman headquarters is stationed underneath a high-end tailor shop of the same name on Saville Row.
Starring Colin Firth as Harry Hart, Mark Strong as Hamish Mycroft, Sophie Cookson as Roxanne “Roxy” Morton, and Taron Egerton as Gary “Eggsy” Unwin as agents of Kingsman, a private intelligence service founded by the British elite after World War I. The focus of the film is split between Unwin, an aspiring agent brought into the fold in the memory of his deceased father (former agent Lee Unwin), and Hart, an older member of the agency and former supervisor of Lee Unwin. The younger Unwin, affectionately nicknamed "Eggsy," spends the majority of the film undergoing probationary agent trials led by Chester King (played by Michael Caine), code name Author, and Hamish Mycroft (code name Merlin) to earn the title of agent Lancelot—all while facing backlash from the elitist (and corrupt) Author, who objects to Eggsy’s working-class origins.
Photo by IMBD
Meanwhile, Hart (code name Galahad) is working, seemingly alone, to save the world from the nefarious machinations of villain Richmond Valentine (played by Samuel L. Jackson). Valentine hits every mark of the parody-action movie villain that one would expect—right down to the aversion of gore and blood. The character is saved from grotesque parody by Jackson’s portrayal of maniacal viciousness in the form of an untampered willingness to order sidekick Gazelle (played by Sofia Boutella) to commit vicious homicide. While it is Firth’s portrayal of the suave English supersecret agent that makes the film, it is the roughly two minutes that he shares with Jackson that redeems the short-changed conclusion of the film.
In the Kingsman world, Secret Service is set over the course of two years, 2014 and 2015, while its sequel, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, takes place over only one very trying week in 2017. It sees the very English Kingsman agents brought to the headquarters of their American counterparts—the Statesman. As debonair as the Kingsman agents are, the Statesman agents are comically uncouth, modern-day, John Wayne-style cowboys armed with bazookas and Corvettes instead of pistols and stallions.
The Golden Circle sees returning cast members Egerton and Strong reprise their former roles while introducing American counterparts: Pedro Pascal (code name Jack Daniels/Agent Whiskey), Channing Tatum (code name Agent Tequila), Jeff Bridges (code name Champagne “Champ”), Halle Berry (code name Ginger Ale), and Julianne Moore, playing the villainous Poppy Adams.
If—in the process of watching this series—you feel a strong affinity for the iconic images of the Kingsman service seen in the first film, Golden Circle may not hold much interest for you. In this addition, Vaughn and Goldman are very much focusing on world-building instead of further developing the nuances of the characters introduced in Secret Service. While this may be frustrating, to Vaughn’s credit, there is a solid underlying plot of Eggsy (Egerton) and Merlin (Strong) reckoning with the aftermath of the events of the first film and the future of Kingsman.
The most recent addition to the series, The King’s Man, saw moderate success as a theatrical release in the US at the tail end of 2021. However, in recent months it has experienced popularity on Hulu.
The King’s Man serves, within the fictional chronology of the series, as a prequel to the events of the Secret Service and Golden Circle; the film focuses on the collective of characters centered at the Oxford estate as they navigate World War I, the machinations that led to it and the effect of the aftermath on Britain. It features an ensemble cast led by Ralph Fiennes (playing Orlando Oxford, Duke of Oxford), Gemma Arterton as Polly Watkins, Djimon Hounsou as Shola, and Harris Dickinson as Orlando’s son, Conrad Oxford,
While the relative newness of the film makes me hesitant to give away too many spoilers, I will say this, The King’s Mancould easily function as a solid standalone film. Although it retains the quality of Bond parody established by The Secret Service, it is tempered by a genuine message on the problematic nationalistic sentiment of glorifying war and death—an aspect overlooked by the first films in favor of comedic violence.
Ultimately, I am under no illusions that these films are Oscar-worthy, cinematic masterpieces. If you're looking for films that make you think hard about things like messages and artistic intent, the Kingsman series is probably not for you. But I am an ardent believer that sometimes media should be consumed for no other purpose than sheer, dumb enjoyment and therefore will always, unapologetically, own the fact that the films in the Kingsman series tick all of my boxes for a favorite film.