The teams behind Kick-Ass and X-Men: Days of Future Past
coming together seems like a great idea on paper. Both movies had great action
scenes, stories and characters, but unfortunately, their collaboration on this
latest action/comedy Kingsman: The Secret Service misses more notes than it
hits.
Except I’m totally lying. This movie is great fun. Go see
it.
Colin Firth stars as Galahad, a veteran agent of the British
secret service organisation known as the Kingsmen. He takes a streetwise youth under
his wing, and promises to train him up in order to replace a former agent, but
this is only half the story. Samuel L. Jackson plays Valentine, the film’s
villain, who has a typical baddie plan to make lots of people die. It’s a tried
and true idea from old spy films, and has plenty of self-referential humour to
go along with it, but the details of Valentine’s plan puts a modern spin on an
old formula, and ensures that Kingsman has a fair balance of genre tropes, and
fresh ideas.
A strong cast, also including Mark Strong and Michael Caine,
bring life to characters that would otherwise seem generic and boring, and
newcomer Taron Egerton stands up against these actors, holding his own with a
great performance as the rebellious yet charming Eggsy.
Firth also shines, despite this being an unexpected role for
him. Anyone surprised to see him as an action hero wouldn’t be alone, but he
fits the role just as perfectly as the tailored suits worn by all members of
the Kingsmen. Some fantastically choreographed action scenes show Firth for the
versatile actor he really is.
Speaking of the action scenes, parallels can certainly be
drawn between the ones you’ll see here and those of the Kick-Ass movies – those
involving Hit Girl that is. Fast paced, suitably bloody and choreographed to
perfection, managing to stay on that fine line between realistic brawling and
over-the-top wire fighting. This falls a little into the latter category
towards the end, especially during the battle between Eggsy and Gazelle
(Jackson’s razor-legged assistant), but it doesn’t make it any less
entertaining.
One scene in particular stands out in my memory. Firth’s
character is pitted against a large group of people in a church, and it’s here
that we really see some of the best action to come out of a film in the past
few years. However for some inexplicable reason, the scene upset me. The
brutality, blood and death count aren’t anything new – I was fine with Kick-Ass
2’s final battle – but for some reason I felt a little distressed watching it.
Perhaps it had something to do with the reason they were fighting, but I’ll
keep that to myself for spoilers sake.
At the other end of the spectrum, the humour is spot on.
Most of it is provided by the lispy villain, Jackson playing a psychopath who
hates violence and projectile vomits at the sight of blood (yes, it happens),
but a lot of it also comes from street-wise commoner-turned-charming secret
agent Eggsy.
There is a large break in the humour around two thirds of the way
through, and the film begins to get very dark, but before too long it returns
to its light-hearted ways, and had me grinning once again.
With great humour, spectacular action and a story that is
both fresh, and a casual nod towards classical spy films, Kingsman puts Colin
Firth in one of his most surprisingly well-fitting roles in a long time, and
delivers an entertaining popcorn movie that shouldn’t be missed. Think Kick-Ass
with spies instead of superheroes – it works.
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