Film An utterly exhilarating experience
I haven't read the comic book, as much as it pains me to say it I've never been sold on the media, so this review is entirely of the film on its own.
Glorious, if I'm going to use one word to describe this film, it is that one.
After having watched, in theaters, a string of depressive dramas (mostly Oscar nominees of this year as well as some arthouse movies) in the past few months; this movie reminded me why I love the seventh art so much: it's just shameless, stylized, escapist and balls-to-the-wall fun.
Unusually for action movies, the first thing I want to pinpoint is the acting and I'm not going to comment on the veterans (it's pretty much a given to expect amazing performances from Firth, Jackson, Caine and Strong; even if, specially for Firth and Jackson, their roles are so wildly outside their comfort zones) but on our protagonist. Egerton plays the role with panache, comfort and emotional depth unusual for someone who is pretty much doing their first big role and in an action/comedy flick no less. There's no moment in the movie in which I can tell he isn't Eggsy. He clearly threw himself to it and had a blast, there's enough conflicting emotions, audacity and (to use Merlin's words) "cheek" to spare. And he also did most of his stunts to boot.
That leads us to another fantastic point of the movie: the stunt work. The action setpieces of this movie are just things of beauty and while everyone mentions, and for a reason, the church scene, I'll focus in particular on my favorite moment in the movie: Eggsy running away from Valentine's lair, demolishing all the mooks he finds on his way before reaching the plane. It's mesmerizing even if it's been done thousands of times before.
The comedy is also spot on and perfectly timed, Galahad's line in the church is flawless in every sense, and that's just one moment.
In the director's seat, Vaughn does a great work of letting us see all this in the smoothest way possible, he has an eye for genial moments that he puts to great use.
I could say here that the movie has its shortcomings... but I won't, I loved this thing, I have watched it three times (being the fourth overall I've watched more than twice in theater) and I might go back for more.
Here's hoping it gets enough money to warrant a sequel and this one isn't shat on like certain other of director Vaughn.
Film Audacious, offensive... and highly entertaining
Having not (yet) read the comic book, this review is purely on the film as a film, and not as an adaptation. In a similar vein to Kick-Ass, it serves as somewhere in between a deconstruction, reconstruction, parody and loving homage... with lots of swearing and ultra-violence, in this instance of spy films not super heroes.
Colin Firth stars as Harry Hart, who faces a plot right out of Roger Moore-era Bond (almost exactly the same as Moonraker, in fact) and with Samuel L Jackson clearly having an absolute blast as the evil megalomaniac villain.
Of course, Bond never had an apprentice on the job with him - and certainly wouldn't have accepted a gobby little chav as a sidekick, as Hart does. Eggsy is just as important to the plot as Harry and played impressively by Taron Egerton, who manages to show the hero underneath the rough edges, of which there are many.
Initially, Eggsy's training is the B-plot and not particularly interesting. The training from hell, the jerkass classmates/rivals, token attractive female with requisite ship tease... but Egerton sells the journey well, and manages to genuinely portray more development than we ever see occurring.
Once he's out of school, things get interesting as the final confrontation looms - and Michael Vaughn tears up the rule book and goes absolutely nuts, giving us what is going to be THE fight scene of the year - what can only be described as an orgy of stylised, slow-motion violence, in a church. To the sound of Freebird. It's seriously daring and made me wonder what he could have done with the more mundane training aspects if he'd really wanted to.
Of course, the final confrontation takes the baton with style and if anything takes it up another level - exploding heads, a {{dragon]] with razor sharp prosthetic legs, and an interaction with one female hostage that no Bond film will EVER dare to attempt...
Now, as for the offensive, I am not kidding - there is a lot of swearing and LOTS of violence - 300 levels of violence, and the main female characters (all two of them) do get pretty short shrift compared to the men. That said, it is a Mark Millar adaptation, and crossing the line umpty-nine times and gleefully seeking refuge in audacity is pretty much his signature style.
In conclusion, this is going to be a film you love, or loathe. I am firmly in the former camp.
Film Sorry, I just don't find it that great.
When I went to see this movie, I had not seen the trailers, nor even heard about it, so I didn't know what to expect from it. Nor did I expect it to get as popular as it did. My brother thought it was great, I see almost nothing but positive reviews about it (and the few who did dislike it tend to be Moral Guardians or nitpicking). People describe it as the modern James Bond, the Kick-Ass of Spy Movies.
And yet, I didn't really enjoy it as much as anyone else.
Don't get me wrong, that movie is well-done, I won't take that away from it. The action is amazing, the visual are great, it has a fairly good balance of comedy and drama. Superficially speaking, this IS a good movie. But... it just doesn't work for me.
Part of it is probably because a lot of the movie's humor works on meta and Crosses the Line Twice, both things that I am not really sensible to unless in very specific conditions. The former can be fun, but in this case, it kinda lacks subtlety, making the movie feel less real, all while failing to make me forget how cliché and cheesy the villain's plot is. As for the latter, the black comedy was just a bit too far for me to laugh at it at times. I am well-aware of tropes like Asshole Victim and Pay Evil unto Evil, but even then I find what the heroes do in the final really put them in Designated Hero territory for me.
I also don't find most characters to be that interesting. The majority are just modernized versions of the spies archetype with no real twist that I noticed, and the story is a typical mentor recruit a young hero in a secret organization that I saw in movies like Men in Black. And don't even get me started with the incredibly unsubtle and one-dimensional political satire. I know a lot of politicians are incompetent or plain selfish today, but to assume almost all of them would agree to what essentially is a world-wide genocide really pushes it. Call me naive if you want, but I think there is a long way from sleazy politician to flat-out Social Darwinist. No way there would be that many people to support Valentine's plan in real life.
Overall, Kingsman: the Secret Service is a fine movie, with good form but few depth, and as a result doesn't quite deserve all the love it seems to get. It WILL give you a good time, but I wouldn't see it become anything memorable or iconic on the long term.