I've been pretty stressed all week, long hours of work, few hours of fun and relaxation. One of my favorite pastimes is watching movies with my partner and commenting on what we see. After the very strong "I saw the Devil" (see post here ), which was our movie yesterday, today we watched "King's man", something relaxing to enjoy the evening in peace.
But I can't say I was very at peace, with the plot of the movie, because the teacher in me was protesting for the falsification of the history that was unfolding on the screen. I was watching scenes and I was like, "they can't have changed that too".
This is the prequel to our famous series, Kingsman, in which we are told the beginning of the famous agency, setting the beginning in the First World War. But I won't say anything else about the plot.
So, in short, on the downside of the film, the scenario itself. The writers chose to present their own perspective on why the First World War started, (a mastermind who as I understand is Scottish), mixing historical elements with fiction. They also threw a dash of colonialism, global politics, anti-militarism and patriotism into the mix and created something reminiscent of a turn-of-the-century James Bond, an agent who kills for world peace.
On the plus side: Rhys Ifans. I liked him as Rasputin, because he gave me the impression that he was ironizing himself. The clever triple role by Tom Hollander who plays all three "cousin kings", King George of England, Kaiser Wilhelm and Tsar Nicholas. The action scenes. The choreography of these was quite good for the genre. Ralph Fiennes is almost in every film acting good.
Oh, and something else I personally found clever: In one scene, Ralph Fiennes explains to his son that when he kills, he loses a part of himself. It seemed to me like a reference to Voldemort, a role played by the same actor, in that Voldemort lost a piece of his human soul every time he killed.
I think this is the first time I've ever written a negative review of a film. Usually in most I operate in a calm manner, trying to understand the director's motives. This one made me sad, because with a lot of seriousness, it presents a falsified history that many people might believe. And we don't need that.
The teacher in me says no. But it's up to you to make your own mind.
Thanks for reading!
