Review of The King's Man

I liked the first Kingsman, I enjoyed the way it spoofed the spy genre, particularly the Bond films of old, while simultaneously harboring a great deal of respect and admiration for them. It was over the top, and better for it. The sequel took the formula to even greater extremes, and in my opinion suffered from that. The art of going over the top, seems to be to stay somewhere below it, however contradictory that may sound. Enter "The King's Man". Every franchise needs an origin story, and within the boundaries laid out by the first two films, this one could hardly have been any better. What struck me immediately was the way the film was as true to history as such a film could possibly allow itself to be (the Russian Tzar, the German Kaiser and the King of England were all real people, and the latter two were in fact cousins). This however, in and of itself, would not necessarily exclude the ridiculous gadgetry and implausible plot lines, but writer/director Matthew Vaughn chose to let it, and it was the right choice. "The King's Man" stays exactly where it needs to be which, according to my admittedly brilliant analysis (please note my sarcasm), is somewhere between over the top, and over the top. As for the plot, the way the film so carefully mixes fact and fiction was immensely enjoyable to me, and as I would pause at several moments to google WW1 and related events, I actually learned a lot by watching this, which is hard to say for most blockbusters! I was also continuously surprised by the twists and turns the story would take, in particular a moment at the end of the second act (I suppose), I won't spoil anything, but I will say it's in regards to a flask with some very interesting contents. I hope Vaughn will continue down the conceptual road he laid out for this film, in the inevitable following installments, I hope the franchise will continue to jump between past and present (a post credits scene suggests it will) and perhaps even future, and I hope the next Kingsman film will be at least as good as the first, or even better, as good as this one.