Kingsman: The Secret Service is one of those films where you know what you’re getting into before the opening attack scene. It’s edgy, fun and doesn’t take itself all that seriously (even when it should). The film is about a group of spies called Kingsman, who are more secretive than Russia’s KGB. They operate silently, quickly and precisely. When one of their operatives is killed in action, the service looks at a young group of individuals to find a replacement. Once found, the Kingsman have to stop a madman from tearing society to pieces.
Very James Bond, without the innuendos (because they just come right out and say their intentions).
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Kingsman starts with a bang. It introduces the characters quickly with Galahad (Colin Firth) being the first in line, who sets up Eggsy (Taron Egerton) to be a key player in his future plans. How does he do this? He morns the death of Eggsy’s father, who saved his life in the opening scene. This transitions to Eggy’s torn up family, who topples over after a period of years without a solid father figure in place. On the side, and 17 years later, the Kingsman are met with another death and soon have to find a replacement.
And as you can pretty much predict, Eggsy’s teenage angst life ends up getting him in trouble and crosses paths with Galahad, who gets him in the Kingsman program. Think of this like La Femme Nikita, but in a more comedic way (editor’s note: La Femme Nikita the FRENCH film. Not whatever America produced).
The first act of the film is done properly, as director Matthew Vaughn takes a page out of his X-Men: First Class experience. He doesn’t waste much time with character development, as their really isn’t anything deep and mysterious to these folks. He just gives you a quick, and proper, synopsis of the players and gets the action going. We can figure out who Galahad is, what Eggsy is going to do with his life and who the bad guys are going to be. All of this is set in stone in maybe a 20 minute span. Normally, if this movie wasn’t purely action driven, I would probably criticize Vaughn and writer Jane Goldman for not creating a sensible bond between Eggsy and Galahad, but how the story is weaved in the first act seems to work just fine.
The second act of the movie is where the real goods come into play. First, we see the intentions of villain Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson) pretty clearly. He pushes out free cellphone sims, so that he can get the world to break apart through some sort of mind-controlling tone that emits from the sim. It’s comic-book-y (duh, right?), but yet pretty perfect for this film. While he continues his diabolical plan, Eggsy begins his Kingsman training and goes through some pretty harsh tests, which include:
– Finding a way out of a pool of water while sleeping comfortably in bed.
– Figuring out how to save a group member who doesn’t have a parachute while skydiving (no one knows which).
– Keeping one’s mouth shut during a crisis.
– And a training scenario that I won’t ruin because it’s vital.
With every step Eggsy takes, he slowly starts changing into the person that Galahad wants him to be. By the end of act two, the movie hits a crossroad for Eggsy’s character and is kicking on all cylinders.
Act two is pure brilliance. If you were looking for development with Eggsy in act one, you get all you can eat with act two. Vaughn had a wonderful knack of putting together a young set of X-Men with First Class. He did it with ease and preciseness that made you believe that the X-Men were a team, and that even the villains that sprang out had rightful intentions for who they were. In Kingsman, Vaughn does it again, though the development of Eggsy is a little bit more sharp because he only has to focus on one character building into the hero you (the audience) want him to be. He slowly turns this street thug into a manageable team leader, through the above training methods, that does what he can to make sure the team succeeds with the minimum amount of loss. The pacing of the scenes and the building of Egerton’s character is just a treat to watch, and is enormously believable. Again, the transition is quite smooth and brilliant.
Having said that, there are some stumbles in act two that are worth noting. Galahad’s character (and turn away if you don’t want to know more) isn’t as defined. We get that he wants to mentor Eggsy and feels like he is somewhat of a father figure, due to his own guilt of letting Eggsy’s father save his life. Galahad wants to be the father that Eggsy has been missing in his life, but he never quite has the time to develop that type of relationship with him. I felt like he was almost a throwaway character when he should have been so much more than that before he died. He may not have been the most vital character in the story, but he was certainly nonetheless more interesting and deserving of more development time than he received and less of a transition for Eggsy. Anyway, it’s not a big dent in the film, but it is something I wish had gotten more attention during the writing process.
Now, I won’t give away too much in act three, just know that the film ends on a bang. If you can suspend your belief that people can dodge bullets, then you’re going to love what Vaughn has in store for you in the big finale. All the work that Eggsy puts in during act two comfortably pays off when the climax of the film hits. It’s impressive to see everything in action, as it is intense from start to finish. How Eggsy gets into the finale and how he comes out of it is something to be behold. Anyway, act three is worth the wait. It truly pays off.
Before I wrap this review up, I have to acknowledge the awesomeness of Sofia Boutella as Gazelle (she has sharp knives for feet), who is superb in the movie. She brings some vindictive and nasty action to the film that is just absolutely brutal. She is a joy to watch as Samuel L. Jackson’s deadly henchwoman. Also, kudos to Jackson as Valentine. The guy loves playing a villain and you can just see that in his lisp-ridden, no-violence bad guy. Love him in roles like this and I hope he does more. Finally, I have to give special props to Mark Strong’s performance as Merlin (he is Eggsy’s sidekick during the final act). He does a great job with keeping the action and comedy alive.
Anyway, go into Kingsman: The Secret Service expecting plenty of action, brutality and endless amounts of F-bombs. If you do just that, you’re going to find a gem of a film. Just don’t take it too seriously.
As for the quality of the DigitalHD delivery, still second to none. Kingsman is another example of how pretty Digital can be. Flawless and a beautiful HD transfer. You’ll enjoy what you get with this release. On a side note, I understand why people want physical copies of movies, but I have to admit that the convenience and quality of digital makes it at least feel like a better experience. Having everything at the touch of a button, and on multiple devices (and cheaper), seems like the better way to go. The quality of picture is equal, if not better sometimes than what you get with Blu-ray/DVD.
Getting off my soapbox now. Let’s go to the summary!