Director: Matthew Vaughn
Running Time: 2 h 9 min
Rating: R
Source: Chicago Public Library
Overall Rating: 5 out of 5
Ever since the commercials for this came out, I’ve been dying to see this movie — Colin Firth as a secret agent spy guy? Yes. Absolutely yes. I mean, I’ll see him in basically anything, but this looked particularly good. So, when we came across it during our weekly library browsing, Andrew and I decided to spend our Friday night hanging out and watching Kingsman.
Alyssa
I didn’t have the highest of expectations going in, but I expected to enjoy myself watching this movie. What I didn’t expect was to absolutely love it. For a couple of days afterward, I would see it by the TV and turn to Andrew to say, “That was actually such a good movie.” For me, it had everything: great acting, a solid story line with a few twists that were unexpected for the most part, and lovely cinematography. My favorite part about comic books turned movies are those beautiful shots that are reminiscent of a comic panel, and Kingsman certainly used those to its advantage, along with heavily stylized fight scenes. I at first thought that the fight scenes were going to bother me, since I’m incredibly squeamish about blood and gore, but I found that it was done in such a way that it really was like reading a comic, and I didn’t have to turn away when things turned violent– which is rare for me.
In terms of story itself, it’s wonderful. The movie makes me want to read the comics, because I fell in love with characters. The villain is a hilarious foil to the agents, and I hope he’s portrayed as well in the comics.
Andrew
Like Alyssa, I didn’t have very high expectations for this movie. Even the opening scene didn’t do much to improve my expectations. And I love Colin Firth, but I thought it was a bit far-fetched for him to play a secret agent. Luckily, I was quickly proven wrong in that belief.
I enjoy watching plot-heavy scenes more than I do action sequences, but Kingsman did a good job in balancing the two, to the point where the action sequences even contributed to the plot of the film, rather than having it seem like two separate movies: one with plot, and one with mayhem and fighting. (*cough* Captain America 2 *cough*) Also, a lot of movies coming from comic books try to make themselves more “realistic” for the “real world,” but this really stays true to some of its comic book roots in terms of not holding back on some of the goofy elements — like the characterization of Samuel Jackson’s character, and the over-dramatic stylized fight scenes — and staying true to the stylistic comic book elements for the way it was shot.
Overall, this is a surprisingly good movie and we highly recommend it.
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