Movie Review: 'The King's Man' Bad Taste Sinks Otherwise Not Bad Prequel

The King’s Man is the origin story portion of The Kingsman film series. In this prequel presentation, director Matthew Vaughn plumbs the depths of his story to find exactly how the famed, fictional, spy agency with the dapper duds, came to be. Ralph Fiennes stars in The King’s Man as, essentially, the title character. Fiennes’ Duke of Oxford is at the right hand of King Edward (Tom Hollander) just as World War 1 is about to break out between England, Germany, headed up by Kaiser Wilhelm, also played by Tom Hollander, and the Czar of Russia, also played by Tom Hollander.

Confounding casting choices aside, The Duke of Oxford is a key advisor to King Edward though he’s seemingly retired from the spy game after being shot in the leg during the Boer War in South Africa. The wound left the Duke with a limp but the far worse effect was leaving him as a widow and single father. The Duke’s wife was killed during this mission while delivering aid and supplies to British soldiers holding hostages in grim conditions in South Africa.

More than a decade later, a group of the world’s most notorious criminals are conspiring to start a War. An unknown, unseen mastermind has gathered the likes of Mata Hari (Valerie Pachner), famed conman Erik Jan Hanussan, and Russian guru Grigori Rasputin, among others, into a cabal that hopes to destroy the British monarchy. Naturally, only The King’s Man, The Duke of Oxford and his team of servant spies, including Polly (Gemma Arterton) and Shola (Djimon Hounsou), can protect the crown.

The Duke’s efforts are greatly complicated by his own son, Conrad, played by Harris Dickinson. With England spoiling for war, the teenager is eager to join up, much to his father’s dismay. Reluctantly, The Duke brings Conrad into his spy ring but it fails to quell Conrad’s desire to defend his country. Thus, what was once a mission to stop a war becomes a mission to stop it before Conrad is killed while trying to defend his country.

Those are the bones of The King’s Man which is a handsomely mounted action movie. Something about casting a man of the dignity and stature of Ralph Fiennes elevates what is otherwise a straightforward action adventure movie. Fiennes’ dignified air, intelligence, and savvy lend the movie a dignity of its own, elevating it ever so slightly above genre fare. Sadly, not even an actor as brilliant as Ralph Fiennes can fully overcome the choices of Director-Producer Matthew Vaughn.

One choice in particular sinks the whole enterprise. The choice surrounds The Duke and Conrad traveling with Polly and Shola to Russia for an attempt to kill Rasputin. I have written an article to accompany this one that goes into spoilery detail on how this truly awful scene ruins so much of what is good about The King’s Man. I will leave a link here once that article is posted with this one. Here, I will only say that the scene features a regrettable amount of gay panic and outright homophobia.

Is that scene bad enough for me not to recommend The King’s Man? Sadly, yes. The movie simply isn’t strong enough to recover from this really stupid scene. This scene is a flaw all of its own but its badness opens up several other lanes of critique that further seal the film’s fate. One of those flaws is a choice of villain. While you have Mata Hari being desperately under-served despite her reputation, and Rhys Ifans delivering a wildly over the top Rasputin, the real villain, hidden in shadows for most of the movie, is a real let down.

I might have been able to forgive the underwhelming ending of The King's Man due to the terrific fight choreography and the crisp cinematography of Ben Davis, along with Ralph Fiennes' well delivered performance, but that scene still nags at me. That scene that I hinted at, involving Rasputin, it’s just so awful. It’s a baffling inclusion in what is otherwise a very straight forward and well crafted action movie. If for one moment I could understand the inclusion of that scene in this movie, if I could get past the gay panic, which I can’t, The King’s Man is a movie worthy of a mild recommendation. With this inclusion however, it is a major misfire.

The King’s Man will be released nationwide on December 22nd, 2021.