Also Written by Jane Goldman
Based on the Graphic Novel by Mark Millar (Wanted)
Starring:
Colin Firth (The King's Speech)
Samuel L. Jackson (Django Unchained)
Mark Strong (Stardust)
Michael Caine (Interstellar)
Jack Davenport (Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl
Mark Hamill (...Star Wars)
Taron Edgeron
Sofia Boutella
Sophie Cookson
Richard Brake (Doom)
Hanna Alstrom
We kick off 2015 with a film that was kicked out of 2014 and may well be the tip of this newborn pyramid of a year. I'm talking the best. Already. And yes, I know what the rest of the year holds. Kingsman: The Secret Service is beyond amazing. Its hyperbolicly stylish and carries that lovely Lock, Stock vibe. The violence is horrifyingly giddy, yet beautifully destructive. Limitless in it's ingenuity, the camera is propelled through punches, it swims and zooms elegantly into from gun to gun, fist to fist. We are treated to action that sucks you in with its pulse and vein rupturing kinetics all the while the story somehow managing to be genuinely creative an affectionately touching in its execution. A deft sense of character injects Kingsman with gentle touch of sentimentality to help ground the surreal viciousness of the action. We are left caring about Harry Hart and Eggsy.
In a melding of variously familiar elements, Matthew Vaughn has managed to make a monumental masterpiece of mayhem. Taking the basic Hero's Journey and adding in a hint of Men in Black, a shade of the Matrix, a smattering of spy tropes along with Arthurian vernacular swirled in to make this a thoroughly engrossing product. When Kingsman was at full-throttle insanity (the Church tracking shot), I was reminded of the best of Edgar Wright's fight scenes from Scott Pilgrim if you mix in the energy of the zombies from World War Z. While containing many standard elements of the average Hero's Journey, Kingsman is also actively working to subvert the conventional pitfalls. There turns you see coming and sudden stops that appear out of nowhere. The film keeps you on a cliff. There are heavy stakes aplenty and there are consequences that roar into effect.
We have an antagonist for the ages and his Number 2 is appropriately unstoppable. With Sam Jackson's Valentine's, the implementation of his plan is flawless in that, much like with Watchmen's all-time great antagonist, there is no stopping him simply because he is better. The question is not whether he will succeed, but rather, what will the heroes do when he does. Valentine joins the ranks of villains like The Dark Knight's Joker, Star Trek Into Darkness' "Khan," The Avenger's Loki, and Skyfall's Silva but unlike them, he doesn't need to get captured for his plan to succeed.
Mark Millar's unhinged story lends perfectly to Vaughn's hyperactive style (As we saw with Kick-A**) and Vaughn, in turn, has that magic touch in selecting and milking the coolest possible performances out of his stars.
We add another triumphant role to Mark Strong's filmography while Colin Firth's performance successfully plants his foot in this decisively unfamiliar territory for the one time regally stuttering Oscar Winner. A report had John Boyega (Attack the Block and the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens) up for the role of Eggsy and, while it may have been refreshing to add a bit of diversity to this quite pale line up of heroes, the job Taron Edgerton does is quite good. He's got the confidence and talent to bring an otherwise standard character a bit of depth. Also, he's listed as 5 feet and 10 inches so it gives me hope to one day do heroically stupid things.
The themes this movie explores are familiar but it still manages to knowingly subvert expectations. There is, remarkably and thankfully, no forced love story. What there is, is a display of friendship and loyalty. Much like Guardians of the Galaxy, we are treated to more complex characters who are motivated by a past that they are haunted by and driven to make choices they must then live with. They are influenced more by their stated goals rather than standard cliches. Again, reminiscent of MIB and Guardians of the Galaxy in that department as well.
Bottom Line: Kingsman hit all the right quavers for me and met each of my unhealthily sadistic expectations. I felt like leaving a tip (were that deemed in any way an acceptable form of showing appreciation to a film whose authors are thousands of miles away). I had this movie pegged to finish at number two behind Del Toro's upcoming effort Crimson Peak and well ahead of predicted number 4, Star Wars, but now that I've seen this thing? Let's just say that 2015 has it's work cut out.
A resounding 10 out of 10.
SPOILER PIT. Read on at your own peril.
This is a brutal movie that cares not for your romantic notions of heroism. People die and, in the aftermath, society undoubtedly is brought to is knees. When Valentine personally killed Colin Firth, he succeeded where so many villains have fallen short. He killed THE hero. It was shocking and visibly affected the audience who've come to be babied into thinking the star can't be killed. Also, the amount of people that lose their lives, while hilariously depicted, is no joke, The movie is effective in building a sense of legacy and it does so through death. Killing Eggys dad moments in and the manner in which it happened, was highly impactful. This was followed mere minutes later, yet far in the future, by Lancelot's death. Death was the propellant. The villain, even in death, was, in many ways, victorious. He played the Kingsman and they were backed into a corner, forced to do what they had to but it was a heavy price to pay. That is why this movie is so resonant. It has the guts to go where you would never expect it to. It kills the hero and, as stated earlier, it doesn't shove a love story front and center.
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