3 Short Paragraphs: The King's Man

2021, Matthew Vaughn (X-Men: First Class) -- download

Rather surprised that Vaughn came along to direct the third installment in his Kingsmen movies, adaptations of the Mark Millar comic. Given this is a prequel, apparently, he was supposed to be filming the third "normal" sequel to the other two movies right after this movie, but that seems to have died on the vine. I am also rather surprised I watched  this, as I am not that big of a fan of the other two movies. One viewing should have been enough, but after a bit of clicky clickism, I rewatched the second and then downloaded this. Again, strongly seated in the meh field.

The first two movies had their tongues securely in cheeks, but this one seemed... overly serious? Its a period piece set just before the first World War, centered around the intelligence group setup by Orlando, the Duke of Oxford (Ralph Fiennes, Spectre) that uses servants and household staff to keep him appraised of the goings on within families of import. Nobody ever notices the servants just doing their job. Meanwhile an organization calling itself The Flock is trying to orchestrate a controlled war in Europe. Their base of operations is rather improbable tor only accessed by a long manual elevator ride, and is covered in sheep. Their leader in the shadows has the most impressive cartoon Scottish accent. Meanwhile, Orlando is doing his best to keep his son out of harm's way, yet still brings him along on a mission to assassinate Rasputin (Rhys Ifans, Notting Hill). Despite their success, The Flock gets the War going which leads to Orlando's son's death, forcing him to take on the leader of The Flock directly.

The movie wants to be a convoluted look into the political events of the early 20th century while also being the rollicking adventure the other movies were. It does have some fun with the historical facts, such as the insular (inbred?) nature of the royal families of Britain, Germany and Russia, by having Tom Hollander (About Time) play all three rulers: King George, Kaiser Wilhelm and Tsar Nicholas. I had thought Rasputin to be at the centre of things, but his bit was rather short, while being overly comically dramatic. In the end, it kind of captures the nature of the other films but wasn't very memorable, and I was rather disappointed by the secret reveal of The Flock Shepherd which served no purpose being hidden at all. And the creation of the Kingsmen tailor shop / spy service out of Orlando's servant organization is... meh.