Kingsman (film)
Dec. 11th, 2015 02:10 pmOoh, this was interesting. It's a homage to the general James Bond genre of films. In fact, I hadn't realised Matthew Vaughn had directed this AND Stardust AND Kick-Ass AND Layer Cake. In retrospect I can see the similarities, but I enjoyed all of them. Unfortunately that seems to be ALL he directed or I would have looked the others up. (He was also involved in other capacities in some other famous films.)
What I liked
It takes the upper-class adventurer aspect of Bond and other MI6 stories and lampshades it front and center, where the Kingsman agency is a non-government-affiliated organisation which embraces the traditional gentleman-spy concept, with expensive suits, gadget-umbrellas, code-names from the Round Table, etc, etc.
But then it throws in Eggsy, from a hard-up working class family. I don't know how charitable its portrayal is, but it spends a fair amount of time on his home life, and pointing out what is screwed up with the gentleman-spy concept, not just turning him into a copy of his mentor. (Though it does that a bit at the end :()
The story splits itself between a series of tests the applicants go through, and the ongoing investigation into the eccentric Samuel Jackson villain.
I love love love the character of Merlin, who oozes "military" not "upper-class", who's always quietly competent, confident and authoritative without the over-the-top persona of the other agents. I'm not sure if he ended up stepping into the Arthur role at the end but I hope he did.
It's hard to put into words, but I have a concept of fight scene done well, where you don't really doubt the outcome, but the choreography and cinematography make it clear that "this bit is more dangerous, this bit is less dangerous". If I read it right, the camera speeds up and slows down, not full bullet time, but showing "here's a character dodging and weaving, here's a character pausing for half a second to take the perfect shot",etc.
Samuel Jackson's villain was interesting -- he seemed more like an actual human who had wandered into evil genius territory instead of stock antagonist.
What bothered me
( Read more... )
What I didn't like
1. It's a very small part of the film, but pre-credits bit has the Kingsmen taking down a terrorist and screwing it up, and obviously they need SOME antagonist but does it HAVE to be Stereotype Ibn-Terrorist?
2. #2 and #3 were the ones that stood out. Like Layer Cake and Kick-Ass, it's quite violent. The scenes where lots of people die in a dramatic fashion to music are quite good, but... maybe gratuitous even by the standards of this film?
3. And omg, please, no "woman as reward for man". You were doing SO well up till then. There's few women shown, but Eggsy's fellow agent-in-training is emphasised as an agent, not a love interest. His relationship with his mum is in the background, but maintained throughout the film. Gazelle is dressed sexy, but is treated as a competent second-in-command/bodyguard not a sex object by the characters. Even the Scandinavian princess kidnapped along with the politicians I thought was a good twist on the "rescue a princess" trope. And then they flirt. And then they make jokes about how she and sex will be a reward for him :(
4. This is a stylistic not moral objection, but I thought the gadgetry was too futuristic, I thought it would be better if it was a bit less electronic.
What I liked
It takes the upper-class adventurer aspect of Bond and other MI6 stories and lampshades it front and center, where the Kingsman agency is a non-government-affiliated organisation which embraces the traditional gentleman-spy concept, with expensive suits, gadget-umbrellas, code-names from the Round Table, etc, etc.
But then it throws in Eggsy, from a hard-up working class family. I don't know how charitable its portrayal is, but it spends a fair amount of time on his home life, and pointing out what is screwed up with the gentleman-spy concept, not just turning him into a copy of his mentor. (Though it does that a bit at the end :()
The story splits itself between a series of tests the applicants go through, and the ongoing investigation into the eccentric Samuel Jackson villain.
I love love love the character of Merlin, who oozes "military" not "upper-class", who's always quietly competent, confident and authoritative without the over-the-top persona of the other agents. I'm not sure if he ended up stepping into the Arthur role at the end but I hope he did.
It's hard to put into words, but I have a concept of fight scene done well, where you don't really doubt the outcome, but the choreography and cinematography make it clear that "this bit is more dangerous, this bit is less dangerous". If I read it right, the camera speeds up and slows down, not full bullet time, but showing "here's a character dodging and weaving, here's a character pausing for half a second to take the perfect shot",etc.
Samuel Jackson's villain was interesting -- he seemed more like an actual human who had wandered into evil genius territory instead of stock antagonist.
What bothered me
( Read more... )
What I didn't like
1. It's a very small part of the film, but pre-credits bit has the Kingsmen taking down a terrorist and screwing it up, and obviously they need SOME antagonist but does it HAVE to be Stereotype Ibn-Terrorist?
2. #2 and #3 were the ones that stood out. Like Layer Cake and Kick-Ass, it's quite violent. The scenes where lots of people die in a dramatic fashion to music are quite good, but... maybe gratuitous even by the standards of this film?
3. And omg, please, no "woman as reward for man". You were doing SO well up till then. There's few women shown, but Eggsy's fellow agent-in-training is emphasised as an agent, not a love interest. His relationship with his mum is in the background, but maintained throughout the film. Gazelle is dressed sexy, but is treated as a competent second-in-command/bodyguard not a sex object by the characters. Even the Scandinavian princess kidnapped along with the politicians I thought was a good twist on the "rescue a princess" trope. And then they flirt. And then they make jokes about how she and sex will be a reward for him :(
4. This is a stylistic not moral objection, but I thought the gadgetry was too futuristic, I thought it would be better if it was a bit less electronic.