Film Review: "The King's Man" (2021).

From the director of Kingsman: The Secret Service and Kingsman: The Golden Circle comes The King's Man. This spy action film directed by Matthew Vaughn, written by Vaughn and Karl Gajdusek, and based on the comic book The Secret Service by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons. It serves as a prequel to 2014's Kingsman: The Secret Service and is the third installment in the Kingsman film series. As a collection of history's worst tyrants and criminal masterminds gather to plot a war to wipe out millions, one man must race against time to stop them. Discover the origins of the very first independent intelligence agency in The King's Man.

In June 2018, Vaughn announced that a prequel film was in active development, stating that the plot would take place during the early 1900s and would depict the formation of the spy agency and that the project would film back-to-back with "the third regular Kingsman film" which was scheduled to be released in 2021. By late January 2019, Ralph Fiennes, Gemma Arterton, Rhys Ifans, Matthew Goode, Tom Hollander, Harris Dickinson, Daniel Brühl, Djimon Hounsou, Charles Dance, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Alexandra Maria Lara, Valerie Pachner, August Diehl, Stanley Tucci and David Kross were cast. At the same time, principal photography commenced and took place throughout the United Kingdom and Italy under the working title of The Great Game. The film was originally scheduled for a 8 November 2019 release date, but was pushed back first to 15 November 2019, then to 14 February 2020, and then to 18 September 2020. The release date was again pushed back by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures to 26 February 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Following the delay of Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase Four films, the film was moved up two weeks to 12 February 2021, before being moved again to 12 March 2021. In January 2021, the release date was delayed again to 20 August 2021. In March 2021, it was further delayed to the December 2021 date.

The film stars Fiennes, Arterton, Ifans, Goode, Hollander, Dickinson, Brühl, Hounsou, Dance, Taylor-Johnson, Lara, Pachner, Diehl, Tucci and Kross. With a few too many villains and seemingly wasted big stars, the cast still puts a fun spin on the spy genre.

As Merlin once said, this is whiskey compared to single-malt scotch. It'll give you a slight buzz at times, but that doesn't mean it was distilled with enough time or care. Apparently, Vaughn is working on a third installment. At this point, I'm not sure whether to be excited or irritated by that. He's a good filmmaker, and he can absolutely do better than this. Think of a film like The Hangover and then remember how its unfunny sequels actually made the first part seem less funny in retrospect. If you enjoyed the first, then the film won't disappoint you. It's just as fun, even if its shiny shoes have been slightly scuffed. Overall, fans of the original will find more than enough to like here, and even casual moviegoers are likely to get a couple kicks from it.

Simon says The King's Man receives:

Also, see my review for The Kingsman: The Golden Circle.