“Kingsman: The Secret Service” is a spy-action comedy film directed by Matthew Vaughn based on the comic book “The Secret Service,” created by Dave Gibbons and Mark Millar. The film tells the tale of Gary “Eggsy” Unwin (Taron Egerton), son of a deceased secret agent who is part of an organization known as the Kingsmen, an order of secret agents who dub themselves the “modern knights of the round table.”
When one of their agents is killed on a mission, they must find a replacement. Harry Hart (Colin Firth), codenamed Galahad, an agent who feels responsible for the death of Eggsy’s father, seeks out Eggsy, a young man brooding with wasted potential, as his proposed applicant. As Eggsy goes through training to become the next Kingsman, Internet billionaire Richmond Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson), plots to cull the Earth’s human population. The film is a jumbled bunch of cliches and storylines, but the action and the comedy make it fun to watch.
Producers love to make films about the British secret service so it’s no surprise that what the audience sees isn’t something they have never seen before. Obviously, the organization known as the Kingsmen is another way of saying MI6; code names like “Galahad” and “Merlin” are substitutes for “007” and “Q.” The film borrows everything from the enhanced gadgetry and mountain bases to the suave personality associated with Bond films.
Along with its cliches, the storyline runs longer than it should have. The films’ runtime is 129 minutes; however, a good portion of the film tries to pad its runtime with action sequences that go nowhere in particular. The first 45 minutes deal with the kidnapping of a professor who’s insignificant to the plot, as he dies within the only two scenes he’s in.
And for a good portion of the film it’s hard to state who the actual protagonist is. The story centers on both Galahad and Eggsy. Although Eggsy’s pinned to be the main character, Galahad has more of an impact on the story than our supposed main character, who doesn’t enter the actual plot until the third act.
Although the film is a litany of action sequences, it does it in style. Unlike most spy action films, this movie doesn’t take itself too seriously. Vaughn chooses to have fun with his spy movie. For example, the film opens up with agents storming a base in the Middle East using a rocket launcher at point-blank range as it were a game of “Team Fortress 2.” And only in this film can you experience a highly trained secret agent murdering an entire building full of members of a hate group, as well as Samuel L. Jackson talking with an extreme lisp.
“Kingsman: The Secret Service” is not a movie for those looking to see a traditional spy movie. This film is as if you took a James Bond movie and made it more quirky and over the top. In a sense, the film parodies the spy movie genre almost in the same way that “Scream” did for slasher films in the ‘90s. The only thing separating it from being a cult classic is that it doesn’t take its parodying beyond explosions and jokes.
Rating: 3 stars
