One man must race against time to stop history's worst tyrants and criminal masterminds as they get together to plot a war that could wipe out millions of people and destroy humanity.
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Cast: Ralph Fienne, Gemma Arterton, Rhys Ifans, Matthew Goode, Tom Hollander, Harris Dickinson, Daniel Brühl, Djimon Hounsou, Charles Dance
Release Date:
Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Crime, Thriller
Rated R for sequences of strong/bloody violence, language, and some sexual material
Runtime: 2h 28m
Review:
The King's Man is one of the strangest and unnecessary prequels in recent memory. Matthew Vaughn's film is tonally off kilter with the previous entries, deciding to go for a more self serious tone that's sure to confuse fans who come in expecting a loose goofy bit of fun. Ralph Fienne leads the film ably even if it does feel like he's a in a different franchise all together. To his credit, Fiennes seems fully committed to the role and he makes the entire thing much more watchable than it deserves to be. Rhys Ifans seems to be the only one who's aware of the franchise hallmarks and he hams it up as Rasputin. His character big action sequence is a dizzying death ballet that outlandish, goofy and one of the sole bits of fun in the entire film. Sadly, he comes and goes far to quickly and are left with a so so WW1 drama that isn't ashamed to steal scenes from Wonder Woman. Gemma Arterton and Djimon Hounsou do solid supporting work but you get the distinct feeling that the film would have benefited from using their talent far more than it does. Even worse, the film cast Daniel Brühl and decides to have him do nothing for the better part of the film. The King's Man is a bizarre follow up that doesn't fit in the franchises tone or spirit and ultimately feels like a bad misstep.
C
