The King’s Man Reviews

It doesn’t matter what you thought of the previous Kingsman movies directed by Matthew Vaughn. Nor is it particularly important what you think of the new film’s trailers and overall concept about a goofy spy adventure set during World War I. Believe it or not, the one crucial thing you need to understand about The King’s Man is it has the most delightfully batshit fight scene you’ll see at the cinema this year. And that, dear reader, is worth the price of admission. The sequence in question involves Ralph Fiennes’ dapper English Lord, Orlando Oxford, his son Conrad (Harris Dickinson), a trusted valet they call Shola (Djimon Hounsou), and perhaps most importantly Rhys Ifans as Grigori Rasputin. Ifans is an interesting character actor who’s done solid work in the margins for decades, including memorably as the schlubby roommate in Notting Hill. However, he’s not a performer I normally associate with martial arts or Russian spiritualism for that matter. Yet he fiendishly hams it up at both when he portrays the historical figure of Rasputin a turn of the century holy man who kept the Tsar of Russia under his thrall. Yes, there were those, including the Russian royal family, who believed Rasputin was a wizard with magical powers. But in Vaughn’s giddy Christmas Eve sequence of The King’s Man, he’s portrayed with maximum boorishness and such excessive vulgarity by Ifans that he leaves all pretenses of good taste behind, coming across like a neolithic swinger determined to get either Fiennes or his son into his bed. And when that fails, he settles for showing off high-kicking Cossack dance moves.

The ensuing chaos blurs the line between ballet and martial arts as the Russian lech crosses swords with all three Brits, including a disrobed Fiennes, as Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” plays and Christmas decorations get decimated. It’s absolute madness that is difficult to put into words other than to acknowledge it measures up to the excessive glee Vaughn and Brad Allan, the stunt coordinator/second unit director on all three Kingsman movies, instilled in the first Kingsman’s iconic action sequence where Colin Firth wiped out an entire church of Southern bigots, or the gonzo joy they staged in the Hit-Girl fight scenes in Kick-Ass more than a decade ago. Vaughn very much appears to be a filmmaker who never outgrew the thrill of smashing his action figures against one another. Yet, unlike so many other filmmakers of similar boyish interests, he went on to study the craft of visual storytelling and production design in detail. In other words, as with Vaughn’s other best action set-pieces, the real crackerjack moments in The King’s Man involve dynamic stunt work and camera blocking that thrill by largely avoiding the crutch of CGI noise (although there are digital effects here too). The scenes also act as an unintended but lovely wake for the late Allan, the stunt coordinator who passed away earlier this year. His recent credits also include Shang-Chi and Wonder Woman, but it’s with Vaughn and his last credited film as stunt coordinator that you get the real sense of the tremendous talent that was lost. These elements, plus the typical cheeky civility one associates with the Kingsman movies, go a long way in overcoming the newer film’s actual obstacles, not least of which is the likelihood of it being able to attract an audience. Originally intended for release in late 2019 before the Disney-Fox merger, and then COVID, delayed it for over two years, the film arrives almost seven years after the charming first movie, and more than four years since the leaden and ultimately exhausting The Golden Circle sequel, which let all the air out of the franchise’s balloon. Now that it’s finally being pushed out during the same holiday season as Spider-Man and The Matrix Resurrections, it very much feels like Disney is casting this movie into the wilderness to die. Which is a bitter shame. Admittedly, one could see why the Mouse House would be perplexed about what to do with the 20th Century Fox leftover. It’s happily crude at times, extravagantly violent, and all-around sardonic in its droll temperament. Which is to say it doesn’t play like a modern PG-13 superhero romp. Rather The King’s Man is the type of movie where a protagonist will name drop he’s buddies with Archduke Franz Ferdinand and say they should go visit him during his tour of Serbia. The next shot is of the heroes riding along with the doomed royal in a roofless automobile. If you know your world history, it’s a bold choice. There are so many big choices like this that the movie is fairly top-heavy, especially early on as it tries to balance the central narrative about a father (Fiennes) who doesn’t want his son (Dickinson) to go off in the First World War with a broader plot about the many historical figures who let the world light itself on fire for four years. Some of those choices are clever, such as having Tom Hollander play all three major monarchs (and cousins) during the war King George V of Britain, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia which underlines the innate meaninglessness and interchangeability of monarchy. Others are a little more ham-fisted, such as the real reason it’s revealed American President Woodrow Wilson didn’t intervene earlier in the conflict. All of it can make the movie appear somewhat overstuffed, even at 130 minutes, with the first act taking a particularly long time to get going as the groundwork is laid. This also leaves affable supporting actors like Hounsou’s veritable His Man Friday and Gemma Arterton as the Oxford estate’s plucky housekeeper-turned-spy, Polly, with relatively little to do. Even so, unlike The Golden Circle’s script, Vaughn and his co-screenwriter Karl Gajdusek are able to keep all the balls in the air and even land them with a genuinely exciting and twisty finale which is taken straight out of The Guns of Navarone (or For Your Eyes Only for Bond fans). In fact, the movie has the extra meta-joke of working as a yet-more pointed critique of the modern Daniel Craig era of James Bond. Craig’s tenure as 007 just ended on a melancholic and largely tragic note. But here, Craig’s second M, Ralph Fiennes, gets to play a far more dashing and jovial superspy in a performance that gets back to the type of British Empire fantasy that first inspired Ian Fleming as a boy. Indeed, at its heart, there is something very old-fashioned at work in this movie. The aesthetic is practically defiant with its antiquated “Rule, Britannia” notions when it’s revealed in the Kingsman universe that World War I was ignited due to a SPECTRE-like conspiracy intended to weaken His Majesty’s power and finally make the sun set on the British Empire. In this way, the film is a love letter to a time when not serving in the war would earn you four white feathers, and servants knew their place (which often involved standing in front of the lord of the manor as a bullet is fired). It’s the kind of romanticized Britain that the Bond character was created to protect, and at least in the Kingsman movies, it’s never looked better defended than when a pantsless Ralph Fiennes attempts to disarm Rasputin on Christmas Eve. The King’s Man opens in the U.S. on Dec. 22 and in the UK on Dec. 26.

Breaking Down Spider-Man: No Way Home

Our latest look at Marvel and Sony’s Spider-Man: No Way Home is here, and Peter Parker’s got new mentors, new foes, and a whole new multiverse of mess to deal with in his latest superhero movie. Let’s break down the new trailer and see what secrets we can speculate about for our latest trip into the Spider-Verse. The trailer opens with a rain-soaked, bloodied Peter Parker (Tom Holland, although we hear other Peters Parker are available). “Ever since I got bit by that spider,” Peter says, as we cut back to the fallout of the climax of Far From Home J. Jonah Jameson (the returning J.K. Simmons) exposes Peter’s identity publicly “I’ve only had one week where my life was normal.” “That was when you found out,” Peter continues, as we see that this conversation is part of a phone call with MJ (Zendaya) previously seen in the first trailer, where she asked him if it was better the world knew he was Spider-Man.

But, Pete, man: that week you had to fight your replacement father figure and stop London being blown up by killer drones with guns? How was that normal? Anyway, a few more shots of Peter and MJ’s swing around NYC later, we fade back into new material of Peter visiting the Sanctum Sanctorum. But this time we get to see the fallout of the meeting with Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) we saw in the last trailer. For a man that was very excited to do some dangerous memory-altering magic, he’s very quick to blame a teenager for a magical whoopsie. “When you botched that spell where you wanted everyone to forget that Peter Parker is Spider-Man, we started getting some visitors,” Strange chides, as we once again see the fallout of the spell seen in the first trailer. What kind of visitors? Well, bad ones, mostly the kind who don’t bring a housewarming gift when they step into a new reality unless it’s an incendiary device. Case in point: another extended glimpse of a shot from the last trailer, of one of the Green Goblin’s (another returning face, Willem Dafoe, but as we’ll see later... there could be more) pumpkin bombs rolling along the highway we previously saw Peter fighting another old foe on. “From every universe,” Strange emphasizes. As long as that universe is contractually obligated by deals between Sony Pictures and Marvel studios, that is. We cut to a nighttime battle, as Peter flips away from a bolt of lightning churning up the earth. This is, of course, returning villain Electro (played by The Amazing Spider-Man 2's Jamie Foxx), but it should also be noted that Peter (presumably) is in a new suit as well. Primarily black with gold webbing, previous merchandise for the movie named this suit simply as the “Black and Gold” suit and as we’ll see a bit later in the trailer, it appears to have been in part a gift from Doctor Strange.

Transformers: War For Cybertron: Earthrise Review - An Action-Packed Transformers Thrill Ride

Those who tuned into Netflix and Rooster Teeth's first entry in the Transformers: War For Cybertron trilogy discovered a stylish and more mature take on the beloved franchise with one heck of a cliffhanger. Now the time has finally come to dive back into this universe with the newest chapter in the trilogy, Transformers: War For Cybertron: Earthrise and fans are in for a wild ride that delivers the same pulse-pounding action and gorgeous visuals while also upping the ante on its ties to the greater Transformers universe, including some appearances and introductions that will absolutely delight longtime fans of the franchise.

Some time has passed between when the first series ends and Earthrise begins, though there's not much storywise that jumps forward as a result, and the few changes are covered quickly when Earthrise begins. Earthrise does completely assume you've watched the first series though, so if you are new to it you will at least want to watch the original series finale before hopping in here, otherwise, it's not going to make any sense.

Those that have watched that series, however, can jump right in, as Earthrise tells a two-pronged story of Elita-1's fight to rescue those oppressed by Megatron and the Decepticons on Cybertron and Optimus Prime and the Autobots on the Ark, who are desperately trying to recover the AllSpark, which was lost after Optimus threw it through the Space Bridge to get it out of Megatron's hands.

Towards the beginning of the series the events of Cybertron are innately more compelling, as while Elita-1's Autobot forces are but a fraction of what Prime had to work with, she seems to get better results, as she and her team have been a huge thorn in Megatron's side since the other Autobots left. Watching them work is a joy thanks to the perfect convergence of personalities and skillsets of the group, especially the dynamic between Jetfire (Keith Silverstein) and Elita-1 (Linsay Rousseau), who has truly come into her own as a leader and finally found her right-hand lieutenant in the former Decepticon. Throw in Red Alert (Todd Haberkorn) and my new favorite Autobot Chromia (Georgia Reed) and you've got a squad that I would happily watch 10 more episodes of in a heartbeat.

Things slow down a bit when the larger-scale plot comes into frame, following Optimus and the crew as they seek the AllSpark. Early on we meet a new faction of mercenaries that definitely play a role later down the line, and this also paves the way for a greater enemy threat to make their introduction. That said, while both of these do play a part in the season in later episodes, they don't feel nearly as consequential as you'd expect, and honestly you could've swapped them out with any other number of characters and achieved mostly the same effect. They serve their purpose, but I wouldn't say they left their undeniable mark on the series.

This aspect of the story does pick up considerably about midway through the season, and it's there that all the richness of the Optimus and Megatron conflict starts to surface. The back and forth between Optimus (voiced by Jake Foushee) and Megatron (Jason Marnocha) on an action level is delightful, but it's the smaller conversations between them that really bring all their baggage to the surface, with some surprisingly honest dialogue occurring between the two arch-rivals alongside several small but important glimpses into their pasts.

This all gets expanded upon wonderfully in episode 5, and while I won't spoil any of the surprises here, let's just say that if you're a longtime fan of the franchise, this one will leave you dizzy in the best way possible. Two conversations happen in this episode that not only provide some sweet fan service but also open up some intriguing possibilities for the series all the while developing its two key leads in compelling ways.

As for how it all ends, we won't spoil that either, but suffice it to say that this series knows how to craft a satisfying ending that hooks the viewer for what comes next. That said, the ending and season overall isn't quite as satisfying as the original, but don't let that stop you from jumping in, because what you will find is a gorgeous and action loaded adventure with heart and character development to spare, and the next chapter can't get here soon enough.