The Mosley Review: The King’s Man

There aren’t too many franchises that have the ability to do what these films have done. The first film opened a new avenue of where fun spy films could go with outstanding action sequences and a very engaging story. The second film expanded the world, but went too overboard with style and action that it forgot its roots. It forgot what made it special in the first place and it was the well plotted out story and characters. Well the filmmaker behind this franchise listened and decided to pull back the reigns and give an origin story that lacked the insane action of the second film and focused on telling an emotional and surprisingly powerful prequel story. This film takes us all the way back to the World War 1 era and shows the beginnings of the secret organization. What I loved about the film is that it was not only a war film, but a story of redemption, responsibility and a family drama that's encased in a spy thriller. It was a positive and also a negative. At times the film felt like it struggled with what type of story its trying to tell or what tone is relevant at the time. Are we hunting down famous historical villains and stopping them from destroying countries through war? Is this the beginning of The Kingsman or is this a coming of age story where a son is wanting to fight in a war his father condemns? Its all of those combined and it was pretty messy tonally, but somehow it focuses up in an epic finale.

Ralph Fiennes is no slouch when it comes to delivering a great performance and as Orlando Oxford, he did something spectacular. The character was once a man of action but now to raise his family, he became a pacifist in a very violent world. I loved seeing Ralph work through the characters' delimma on when to or even how to act without breaking his vow. There is so much heartbreak behind his eyes and as the story progresses, you see him use that as motivation. Harris Dickinson was excellent as his son Conrad and I loved the chemistry and friction between them as Conrad wants to serve his country, but his father won't let him. Harris was great in every scene and I loved when he was working with Ralph the most as the heart of the story surrounds them. He had one of the best bloody, dirty and graphic fights scenes in the film that felt so primal and real. Gemma Arterton does what she does best in playing the female presence and sometimes the voice of reason in the film as Polly Wilkins. She gets to have alot of fun in the film and some great one liners. Djimon Honsou was awesome as Orlando's family bodyguard and bestfriend Shola. I know he may come off as a servant at times, but I loved that he was so much more that. Tom Hollander is doing triple duty as King George, Kaiser Wilhelm and Tsar Nicholas. He plays them all so distinctively that it was easy to tell them apart, but it’s fun to see the progression of each of their beards. Matthew Goode was awesome as Morton and I liked that he had such a great sword fight towards the latter half of the film. Rhys Ifans steals the film as he is absolutely unrecognizable as Grigori Rasputin. I loved how he played with the history of the character's connection to healing abilities and I liked how he was a physical menace in combat. His fight scene was visually kinetic as he incorporates Russian dance into his fighting style.

The score by Matthew Margeson and Dominic Lewis was magnificent and carried the film along in the more somber moments. The action scenes and especially during the war portion was awesome and chilling. The cinematography was amazing and stunning to behold. The action in the film was toned down in the best way and you felt every punch, explosion and blade puncture. The sound design in the film was especially crisp in a great number of scenes. The main problem I had with the film is that it was trying to juggle too many themes at once and it made it kind of hard to focus on what type of film it was trying to be. It really made the feel seem to drag on for way too long. In the end, this was a welcomed scaling down from the over the top nature of The Golden Circle and a fun World War 1 action spy drama that delivers on engaging characters and great action. Let me know what you thought of the film or my review in the comments below. Thanks for reading.