The King's Man Movie Review: Origin story prequel that appears half-hearted

Picture Courtesy: PR

The King's Man (2020)
Dir: Matthew Vaughn
Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Gemma Arterton, Rhys Ifans, Matthew Goode
Rating: 2.5/5

The comic book-based universe of ‘Kingsman' gets a pointless origin story and it comes after the international box-office success of the first two editions Matthew Vaughn's 2015 feature, Kingsman: The Secret Service and subsequent sequel, the 2017 film, Kingsman: The Golden Circle.

This current film under review, ‘The King's Man' takes us back in time to the first two decades of the 20th century and explores the origins of the spy organization. Vaughn's narrative adopts an episodic structure with three distinct segments, beginning with a prologue set around the turn of the century, then taking a conceptual leap-of-faith ahead to the months just prior to World War I. The assembled coterie consisting of the Duke Oxford (Ralph Fiennes), his maid, Polly (Gemma Arterton), his manservant, Shola (Djimon Hounsou) and his son, Conrad (Harris Dickinson) sent initially by King George (Tom Hollander) to prevent the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand (Ron Cook) eventually end up as the Kingsmen wearing Saville row armoury and distinguishing themselves as elite spies.

Oxford, Britain's most famous pacifist, who lost his wife as they tried to provide aid to the victims in a South African concentration camp during the Boer War, had initially vowed to keep their son safe. But a decade and a half later, young Conrad spins his own tale to enlist in the 1914 war.

Their original mission to limit the expansion of the war in Europe and ensure American involvement seems all but failed as the infamous mystic Grigori Rasputin (Rhys Ifans) shows himself to have far too many aces hidden in his classically choreographed fight moves synced to Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture." The segment that covers the initial portion of World War I is presented with all seriousness and then the third segment plays out as adrenaline spewing actioner as the closely co-ordinated assault of the villain's headquarters takes place, pushing the stakes to cliff-scrambling heroics in an attempt to conscript the United States' into the war. Along the way you are treated to glimpses of historically significant figures like King George, Tsar Nicholas ( Tom Hollander), Kaiser Wilhelm (Hollander again), Rasputin, Mata Hari (Valerie Pachner), Lenin (August Diehl), Woodrow Wilson (Ian Kelly) ratcheting up war-time hysteria.

Vaughn is obviously using history to lend validity to his fantastic tale and that's acceptable. This is not authentic but distorted history and could have gone down much better with a strong infusion of humor ( like Tarantino brought forth in Inglourious Basterds). But the fact that it's generally devoid of humor and can barely drum up thrills to dignify itself as a 007 inspired work of cinema, deems it an exercise in futility. There's really nothing new or exciting here. We've seen it all before so even the high octane thriller third segment feels rather stale.

The A-list actors try in earnest to make this a rousing adventure but Vaughn's fractured narrative can't raise enough sparks to keep the experience volatile. The only highlight here is Rasputin's manic Russian sabre dance set to Khachaturian's "Sabre Dance." It's a visually compelling sequence that finds its energy from Rhys Ifan's super-charged presence, stunt doubles, and special effects. This one's not a bad film as a standalone but coming as it does as part of a successful, humor-charged, entertaining franchise, it feels rather half-hearted.