The King's Man

In the early years of the 20th century, the Kingsman agency is formed to stand against a cabal plotting a war to wipe out millions.

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. The Comic Book "The Secret Service" by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons.

Action, Comedy, Suspense, Thriller
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Stars: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Gemma Arterton, Ralph Fiennes

Official Trailer: The King's Man

Review: The King's Man

MOVIE REVIEW LEIGH PAATSCH

THE KING'S MAN (MA15+) Director: Matthew Vaughn (Kingsman: The Secret Service) Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Harris Dickinson, Gemma Arterton, Rhys Ifans

A right royal mess The world was never, ever waiting for a prequel to the Kingsman movies.

In case you have forgotten - and don't feel guilty if you do - the original Kingsman concept centred on a secret society of British spies whose HQ is hidden behind the Savile Row storefront of a top-notch tailor.

The pulpy, action-magnetising premise was good for two movies in the middle bits of last decade, both of which grossed just north of half a billion bucks worldwide.

All these two solidly enjoyable, yet highly disposable movies left in their wake was stardom for Rocketman leading man Taron Egerton, and the lingering memory of Colin Firth wasting a room full of assailants with some kung fu and an umbrella.

Neither Egerton nor Firth are anywhere to be seen in The King's Man, which rewinds the narrative by several decades to tell a fairly messy (and not so compelling) origin story.

In their place you get Ralph Fiennes as the Duke of Oxford, a dashing nobleman doing the British government's bidding at the start of the last century.

Harris Dickinson plays Conrad, the Duke's equally dashing son who wants nothing more than to follow in the old man's posh, politically meddling footsteps.

As The King's Man properly begins, the Boer War is coming to an end, and the Duke has just lost his missus to a bullet on the battlefield.

Why his missus has wandered into a war zone is not really explained. All that matters is that Conrad saw it happen, and the Duke renounced all violence to become a peacemaking pacifist.

We then skip forward a decade, and the planet is warming up for a multi-continent conflict that will become known as World War I. The Duke can sense what is coming, and immediately puts two tasks up the top of his to-do list.

First of all, he must take all measures to stop World War I at any cost. Secondly, The Duke must ensure that should the war begin, then his boy Conrad must never see active combat.

While that all sounds straightforward enough, the movie turns out to wander all over the place, never staying still and never heading in the one direction for long.

One minute, The King's Man will be zigging left and tearing up every page of the history book it can.

Did you know that America's reluctance to enter WWI was because the US President was being blackmailed for receiving a lap dance in the White House? Neither did I.

The next minute, The King's Man will be zagging right, and rather sombrely exploring the father-son conflict between the pacifist Duke and his patriotic son.

No matter which way it impulsively chooses to move, The King's Man never holds our attention for long. And speaking of long, it takes well over 100 minutes to get anywhere near the reason we are supposed to be here: the formation of the Kingsman agency.