- Title: The King’s Man
- IMDb: link
Removing all the humor, and most of the over-the-top action, from the franchise, writer/director Matthew Vaughn delivers the dreary prequel The King’s Man. Set during World War I, the film isn’t about the creation of the Kingsman but instead the story of the man (Ralph Fiennes) who would eventually put the group together and his turbulent relationship to his son (Harris Dickinson). As in the other films, there is, of course, a secret organization led by a Scottish madman behind the events of WWI whose reveal turns out to be as lame as the rest of the film.
I can only assume that such an ill-conceived project was the result of a bet that Vaughn couldn’t create a Kingsman film as a drama. Turns out he can, just not a good one. Gemma Arterton steals one nice moment as the maid turned super-spy, the rest is entirely forgettable. What a waste of time for an increasingly irrelevant franchise.
Watch the trailer