"The King's Man": review

[NB: this review will be minimally spoiler-y. Minor plot points might make an appearance, but not major ones, except to the extent that the movie follows actual historical events.]

2021's "The King's Man," a prequel in the Kingsman series of films, is once again directed by Matthew Vaughn. Set at the eve of World War I, right at the birth of the extra-governmental Kingsman organization, the story follows Orlando, Duke of Oxford (Ralph Fiennes), a former soldier who has become a pacifist, visiting battlefields and tending to the wounded and dying. 

Unwisely allowing his wife and son onto the field of combat during a Boer uprising in South Africa, Orlando loses his wife Emily (Alexandra Maria Lara) to a sniper. Before she dies, Emily makes Orlando promise to protect their young son Conrad (Alexander Shaw) from war. Years later, Conrad is a young man (Harris Dickinson), chafing for a chance to serve his country and to prove himself in battle, but his father and Lord Herbert Kitchener (Charles Dance), the Secretary of State for War, hover protectively over him, at least until he is nineteen and legally able to make his own life-decisions. 

Meanwhile, we discover that Orlando, while avowedly a pacifist, has actually established a globe-spanning intelligence network on behalf of the British Empire, with the help of two apparent servants, Polly (Gemma Arterton) and Shola (Djimon Hounsou). Orlando has become aware that shadowy forces are at work to precipitate what will eventually become World War I. Among the various puppet masters is Grigori Rasputin (Rhys Ifans), who holds Tsar Nicholas (Tom Hollander) and his family in thrall. Nicholas is one of three cousins, each leading three separate countries: Nicholas in Russia, Kaiser Wilhelm in Germany (also Hollander), and King George in England (also Hollander). Above even Rasputin is an even more shadowy presence known only as The Shepherd, whose Flock includes Rasputin, Gavrilo Princip (Joel Basman), and the seductive Mata Hari (Valerie Pachner).

"The King's Man" incorporates actual historical events into its story, such as (1) the shooting of Archduke Ferdinand and his wife by Gavrilo Princip and (2) the Zimmermann telegram, in which Germany offered an alliance with Mexico as a way to distract the United States and keep it out of the war in Europe. While the movie overall plays fast and loose with history, it anchors its plot in historical events, like World War I itself, and in characters like Rasputin, Archduke Ferdinand, and even a very young Adolf Hitler in a mid-credits scene at the end. 

The movie also contains sly callbacks to the two previous films, including a "looking good/feeling good" exchange between two characters (itself a nod to "Trading Places"?), the musical cue of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, references to "Oxfords, not brogues" (said as "we're Oxfords, not rogues" in this movie), and even a moment where the primary villain utters the line made famous by Colin Firth in the first movie: "Manners maketh man." You'll need to be familiar with the first two Kingsman films to get the inside jokes, but the film is entertaining, if tonally all over the place, even for people new to the series.

And the film really is tonally all over the place. Although not quite as bloody and gross as Vaughn's other Kingsman films, the movie has trouble settling on whether it wants to be an over-the-top, retro spy comedy-adventure or a gritty retelling of a slice of World War I, with all the horror that that would entail. And while the film contains many cartoonishly comical moments (and some squirm-inducingly awkward ones, including a scene in which Rasputin "heals" a man's poorly mended bullet wound by caressing it and licking it), there is also at least one shockingly tragic moment involving a main character whose plot armor fails to protect him. The film is also quieter, more thoughtful, and even emotionally deeper than previous Kingsman films, making it sort of an odd man out.

Along with the tonal unevenness is the problem of the film's main villain, who turns out not to be all that impressive, and whose motivation doesn't really seem deep enough to carry the entire film. On top of this, I guessed who the main villain was about halfway through the movie, so when the big reveal happened near the end, it wasn't a surprise at all.

Despite the uneven tone and the predictability, I found "The King's Man" to be watchable and quite entertaining. Ralph Fiennes is getting on in years, so seeing him as an action lead was a bit strange, but hey, if Liam Neeson can do it, then so can Fiennes. Hell, even Clint Eastwood was still doing rooftop chases in 1993's "In the Line of Fire," back when he was 63 years old. Age issues aside, the movie has a good, solid cast, and if you're willing to forgive the somewhat labyrinthine plot and Vaughn's tendency to get bloody (although, as noted, not as bloody as in his other Kingsman films), I think that, ultimately, you'll enjoy this ride, which makes good use of actual history to tell a story that is simultaneously goofy and serious.