Kingsman: Secret Service: Colon: Mathew Vaughan: Based On A Comic: This movie has Exploding Heads and Mark Hamill
By Freddy Ruiz
If Mark Millar is writing a comic, there's somebody right next to him looking over his shoulder writing the script to the movie. No two people are better at this than his best bud Mathew Vaughan and his writing partner Jane Goldman as all three are certifiably insane with their ideas on how movies should work. Vaughan and Goldman already having collaborated with Millar on the adaptation of his cult fave Kick-Ass decide to bring back a little bit of what made the seventies and eighties great. Frivolity! We have heads exploding, gun-brellas, super secret "I'm a Spy Hard" glasses and weaponry along with neurological gadgets that make everybody act like their in the remake of the Crazies.
We are reminded of Mathew Vaughan's visual frivolity with the opening sequence as a helicopter comes in all guns blazing. We are introduced to our first group of Kingsman, named so after King Arthur's round table and his knights as they are gentleman after all, led by Colin Firth's Harry Hart codename Galahad. This being Harry's early years, he makes a mistake, which costs the life of one of the newest Kingsman. Feeling responsible, Harry leaves the grieving widow and son of his fallen comrade a medal with a number on the back stating that if ever they need anything to simply call the number. Cut to years later as we are introduced to my favorite iteration of Samuel L. Jackson ever. The man who has fought snakes on a plane, been a Jedi and eaten a damn tasty burger has gone full super villain, a very mental super villain. The man has a lisp and tries really hard to rock the sports wear, always with a cap on his head tilted to the side trying to be a G and he cannot stand the sight of blood, lest he faint or puke. His right hand woman, Gazelle played by Sofia Boutella, equipped with metal legs complete with very stabby high heels kills one of the Kingsman while he is trying to rescue none other than Mark Hamill, playing the very British Professor Arnold, from Sammy J aka Valentine! This is the catalyst for Harry to enlist the now fully-grown "Eggy" son of the fallen Kingsman from so many years ago, as there is a new spot open under the Codename Lancelot. Little Eggy has grown up to be a very good street thug having to deal with his mother's abusive boyfriend as well as all of his thuggish friends, understandably the kid has adapted to the streets with a huge don't screw with me attitude. Eggy gets into an argument in a bar and instead of using physical violence he simply steals the big wanker's car and goes for a joyride where he ends up trashing it! Whilst in jail he remembers the number on the back of the medal that he has worn around his neck his whole life and gives Old Harry a call for help. Eggy becomes the new recruit of the Kingsman learning from the greats such as Michael Caine, of course codenamed Arthur because if you have Michael Caine in a movie he's the damn boss, and Mark Strong, tech genius and trainer Codenamed Merlin, hey kid's it's the bad guy from Kick-Ass! We are treated to the training of Eggy whilst watching the insanity of Valentine as he gathers the elite of the world to save them from a technological genocide he is going to use to wipe out the current inhabitants of Earth bringing about the dawn of a new era!
This is a long movie, clocking in over about two hours but you are never bored. Eggy is a very likeable guy fighting to make something of himself and be the man of the household for his family. He's very Luke Skywalker in this in that he'll take whatever he can get to better himself and his life. It's also very fun to watch him train with the other Kingsman recruits as all of them come from very rich and royal backgrounds. Eggy gets to prove himself to them by using his heart and his background of the streets is so innate in him that he cannot leave anyone behind, making him great leadership material in key scenes such as a very nicely filmed and nerve racking air jump sequence that is amazingly executed and fun to watch. Although I do love Eggy's transition into manhood and Kingsman material, as I've stated Sammy J really steals the show. Doesn't he always steal the show? If I was in a room with his character from Kingsman and Jesus was next to me trying to explain existence I'd probably be paying more attention to Sammy J because he just talks so damn funny. Sorry Jesus. The scene in which Gazelle kills the Kingsman trying to save Professor Arnold, Gazelle has to put blankets and towels down so Valentine doesn't puke all over the place. There is one scene in the movie where Valentine straight up shoots a guy in the head and pretty much keels over in distress. Gazelle makes the comment, "Doesn't it feel good?" Valentine replies "Hell no that felt horrible!" This of course is after he uses his neurological hostility device on a church which goes ballistic and we are treated to a ten minute scene of church goers slaughtering each other. Isn't it your fault all those people died Sammy J? "Hell no! They killed each other! I just pushed a button!"
Let's talk about the church scene. Mathew Vaughan loves himself some balls to the wall action no doubt. Sword fights in Stardust, Hit-Girl's crazy killing strokes and now the church scene in Kingsman. Harry discovers coordinates for a test of this neurological weapon and goes to investigate which leads him to a church. He sits in on a Sunday sermon as we are treated to a hate filled southern fried preacher who basically if you are not corn fed and white bread, you might as well be sodomizing around with Satan. You get to really hate these people in the short time you know them, which really elevates the scene when the device is switched on. Valentine and Gazelle switch on the device from a safe distance and bam! The entire church goes insane! If an object can hit someone it will be used to kill someone. If a piece of furniture or pieces of the church itself can be ripped off and become hand held it will be used to kill someone. If you put a bunch of racist rednecks in a room together more than likely some of them have guns and or knives and they will use them to kill someone. Then there's Harry who is a Kingsman with all types of different weapons and hand held combat skills trained to kill. In a combination of slow motion and fast paced action close ups in the vein of Hit Girl's action scenes, Harry kills them. It is a glorious bloody sequence. That's only the middle of the movie.
Of course in the end it's up to Eggy to become a true Kingsman and take down Valentine and his dastardly plans. We are given a very nice ending battle sequence where Eggy goes full Kingsman with all of his gadgets taking on Valentine's very James Bond looking henchmen with his badass shotgun/shield umbrella that would make the Penguin pee his pants. We also get a very nice fight sequence between Eggy and Gazelle that is quite impressive but honestly is a little hard to believe. Remember when I said just accept it and enjoy? This is where that comes into play for me. My only gripe is that Eggy seems to have picked up his fighting skills out of nowhere, understandably we don't need to see every aspect of his training and it is definitely more important to the story for us to see him learn to use his brain instead of his Braun through the training. I'm left thinking, how in the hell is he going toe to toe with a chick with badass metal legs that seemed unstoppable? Then again it's a minor gripe and can easily be looked over, as it is a badass fight scene. In the end we are treated to some of the funniest dialogue I've ever heard in a third act of an action movie complete with exploding heads that rival Scanners, but are far more insane and hilarious.
There's the movie, time to let the uber geek in me out and compare to the comic book, a few spoilers ahead so be wary. In the Secret Service comic book, Valentine is kidnapping not only important people for his new world but also celebrities. This brings us to the Lightsaber toting Clown Prince of Crime himself, Mark Hamill. In the book the first sequence we are treated to is the rescue of Mark Hamill. In the movie he portrays the character Professor Arnold whose head gets blown up eventually and does Valentine love his Professor Arnold! In the comic he's just straight up Mark Hamill. Valentine in the comic is such a super nerd he kidnaps Mark Hamill because dammit we need Luke Skywalker in the new world order! I will admit though it was fun as hell to see a slightly chubby Mark Hamill complete with beard and amazingly well done English accent, it's been a while since we've seen him act live action on the big screen. Another good role to catch him in as of late is the indie film Sushi Girl which plays like Reservoir Dogs, but back to Kingsman. In the flick his head is blown up which is about right considering in the comic when he is being rescued on the back of a snowmobile he falls off and crushes his head. Mark Hamill has been attached to this for quite some time as I remember when the book started coming out Mark Millar had to sit down with Hamill for likeness rights and they started planning out his "cameo" for the eventual film. Makes you wonder if he was to portray a completely different character from day one. The other two casting changes that I think made the movie better than the comic were of Samuel L Jackson and Sofia Boutella. Originally Valentine was a nerdy white guy and Gazelle was his makeshift Bond villain that he gave a terrible nickname that made the guy feel insecure about the fact that he had fake metal killing legs. Who feels insecure about fake metal killing legs? This was obviously changed for the better as while the villains were interesting in the comic, their characteristics themselves were rather dull and you didn't care about them. Sammy J comes complete with lisp and attitude. Ms. Boutella turns her character from a whiny baby into a mean killing machine!
Eggy in the comic is the nephew of Harry and goes by the name of Gary. He mentions his name being Gary once in the movie and they never speak of it again. In the book Gary is a lot meaner and nastier. Dave Gibbons, the artist behind Watchmen, draws some of the narliest and nastiest looking people for Gary's friends and family. Gary or Eggy even in the book looks pretty disgusting himself as he and his friends are constantly getting into bar fights, arrests and all kinds of trouble of which his Uncle Harry is always having to get him out of. This aspect really pushes how hard Harry tries to help his nephew but he can't help but being a little nasty bastard. I do wish they had kept the edge of Gary in Eggy's live action character and pushed the likeness of Dave Gibbons drawings a little more in the film as I think it would've been a little more hardcore to see what a hole full of rats Eggy came from to become a Kingsman. It's still very good and the characters of Eggy's Mom and her boyfriend are done pretty gnarly but just not as gritty as Dave Gibbons original drawings, but in film adaptations compromises must be made and most of Vaughan's choices he has made in changing the material made the movie surpass the book in many ways.
This is probably the most fun I have had seeing a movie in theaters in quite some time and while on the long side it is still very enjoyable. This is a definite send up and love letter to the old school spy movies but you don't have to be a fan of spy movies to enjoy it. There's enough substance in every area of this movie for everyone to enjoy. I myself found this to be one of the best and most enjoyable movies I've seen in a long time! I recommend checking this out and reading the comic afterwards to get a sense of how much genius has been brought to the table by Vaughan and Goldman! Also for a limited time if you check this flick out at the Alamo Drafthouse and show up in a suit you get free popcorn for looking suave like Bond!