Wes Anderson does Quentin Tarantino

Rating: 10/10 (21 May 2015)

I haven't gotten this giddy, this wide-eyed excited about an action movie since the 2009 Star Trek. Maybe 300 before that, and The Mummy when I was more of a kid. Kingsmen had me by the ladyballs literally from the first five seconds, as I imagine it might for many other Western World 80s and 90s kids. It might be my favorite movie opening to date. In fact, the whole film is visually spectacular, from the speed of the fight scenes to the thoughtful framing and color choices to the classy and unique way they integrated cg into their spy tech.
It was actually pretty well-written, too, and I'm picky about that. For frame of reference, I think Avengers looks pretty cool but the dialogue is dreck. Kingsmen, though, asks you to suspend your disbelief as much as you would a comic book movie, but also provides answers to many logic holes that a viewer with half a brain would have. That said, much of its charm is also borne by its formulaic story. Like in the aforementioned Star Trek, our young troubled hero must prove he's worth his father's salt to an organization he's destined to join, and does so by helping to defeat a sociopathic supervillain. I'll trade originality of plot for sharp one-liners delivered by an intelligent cast in these rare cases.
The film has its flaws of course. Sorry ladies, Kingsmen is a boys' club, save the occasional tropey man-eater female assassin or damsel busting at the seams. Oh well, you can't have everything. TL;DR: This movie is f'ing spectacular. If I were British I probably would have loved it to an unhealthy degree.