Kingsman: Secret Service Review

Kingsman is an energetic, exciting take on a familiar setting and characters. The movie is very self-aware of all the other films this is taking a page from. The plot and characters aren’t anything different from what you’ve seen before. But Director Matthew Vaughn infuses it with his style of hyper stylish non-stop action scenes and, for the most part, witty dialogue.

Characters

Taron Egerton plays the boy has made poor decisions in his life. From the trailers I wasn’t sure if I was going to buy him in the Kingsman suit he would eventually don. But as you follow him through the adventure he becomes more and more likeable and holds himself well against some pretty big name talent.

Colin Firth is the forefront of that talent in a role I don’t think many could ever see him playing. He uses the typical charm that we see of him in so many other roles but added to that is the fight scenes. If you read other reviews I’m sure this is what people will mention. Especially an action scene involving a church. But he does it so naturally I’m surprised he hasn’t dabbled into this type of action before. He and Egerton really have a great back and forth and their chemistry is such a treat between the action sets.

Samuel L Jackson plays Valentine, an old school Bond villain with a twist. Jackson adopts a speech impediment and hates violence but has no trouble in causing it. He also has some great outbursts which have great comedic timing. There isn’t really much else to his character but he always manages to keep us entertained.

There are other notables like Mark Strong and Michael Caine who do good jobs in the roles they’re asked to do. Sofia Boutella’s Gazelle is a fierce sidekick to Valentine and has great presence for someone who doesn’t get to say all that much. If you took Gogo Yubari from Kill Bill Volume 1, put some deadly knives on her feet and gave her more screen time. Gazelle is that character.

The Plot

As I mentioned earlier there isn’t too much to the plot you haven’t seen. A Mentor takes young man under his wing to teach him important life lessons. Young man goes through trials and tribulations etc. But really it’s the characters and the action which makes this as much fun as it is.  But to its credit the film never seems to lag. Sure there are the quieter bits but they serve as a good counter balance to the fast-paced and frantic action. If there are more bits of dialogue there will be a short bit of action to break it up before one incredible hand-to-hand combat sequences.

Overall

If you are a fan of Matthew Vaughn’s previous works like Kick Ass this is a film you should enjoy. It’s funny, energetic, and excessively violent. All the actors do a good job with the material that they are given. If you were to find anything wrong with this film it would be that it is formulaic and the character traits are pretty straight forward. But if you’re looking for a good time at the cinemas to escape for 2 hours to have fun, you could do a lot worse than Kingsman: Secret Service.

Review By Daniel Clements