Film Review: Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014)

Over the weekend I went to the cinema and saw Kingsman: The Secret Service, directed by Matthew Vaughn.

Kingsman: The Secret Service promotional poster

After Eggsy gets into trouble with the law after stealing a car from the neighborhood thugs he calls in a favour to Harry Hart, who works for a spy agency and feels responsible for the death of Eggsy's father many years before.  Having been offered the chance to escape his current life and join the agency Eggsy begins training with the other candidates.  Meanwhile an elaborate plot is being set in motion.


Kingsman was overall an enjoyable film but I found myself at points indecisive as to whether it was brilliant or ridiculous.  The entire film was over the top, from the actors to the fight scenes.  At first i found the acting a bit painful in it's exaggeratedness, but it quickly became part of the films humor; especially when moments of ridiculousness contrasted with deadpan acting, or serious moments were overplayed.

This worked well for the style of the film, which drew a good amount of its humor from the use of stereotypes and reference to other films.  However with the emphasis on action and comedy I felt that the narrative was somewhat swamped.  This really wasn't a film to connect to emotionally.  There were a few moments in the film where scenes that seemed to attempt some seriousness were subverted by comedic undertones.  It was brilliant in its unexpectedness, but I couldn't help but be pulled out of the film to wonder how I should respond to a moment.  This meant that there were very few moments in the film where I actually felt any connection to the characters emotionally, and would instead consider this film to be pure entertainment.   

This probably also affected my view of the main character, Eggsy.  Eggsy is a spunky and witty character, whose main growth comes from a change in attitude.  At the start of the film he seems to feel hard-done-by by the world and pessimistic towards it.  He sees his current standing within the world as unfair, but feels unable to change it or even recognize the things he could change.  

The character was really likeable, and was shown to be caring towards his mother and sister, encouraging and emotionally supportive towards Roxy (despite that they were in competition for the same position).   While I found the character interesting and likeable he sometimes seemed to be overshadowed by the other characters.  My favorite character was probably either Eggsy or Harry Hart, but I found emotionally connecting to the characters was something that needed to be tried at; that there was a conscious decision on my part to push through the superficial surface of the film in order to find those connections.  

Interestingly, I found that some of the most visually engaging moments were also those that made me switch off a bit during the film.  In these cases, while there was no way that I would look away,  I definitely found myself thinking about the VFX in each shot (granted a habit I fall into while watching films these days) rather than the film itself.

This becomes both a strength and weakness for the film, and is part of why I would consider the film to be pure, exalted entertainment.  Kingsman pushed the boundaries and then pushed a little further and, with a narrative that was so simple it needed to.