A high bar for entertaining blockbusters

Rating: 8/10 (16 March 2015)

A weekend cinema-outing of this slick UK spy actioner which is a surprisingly excellent revamped Bond-esque espionage genre fare inundated with polished set pieces and beguiling plot twist albeit the whole movie is ground in the same old saving-the-world-from- a-super-villain mode.
Director Matthew Vaughn has been constantly on my radar as one of my favourite genius in commercial filmmaking, I have watched all his previous four features, from LAKE CAKE (2004, 6/10), X-MEN: FIRST CLASS (2011, 7/10), to my absolute guilty-pleasure treasures STARDUST (2007, 9/10) and KICK-ASS (2010, 9/10). His latest is by all means a thoroughly engaging adventure with unconventional violence and visual gags, which all delightfully surpass viewer's expectation.
So, Kingsman is a secret British spy organisation with agents all suited-up in a refined and old-fashioned cavalier comportment to fight the evil minds. After losing one of their top asset Lancelot (Davenport), the headquarter, presided by Arthur (Caine), decides to recruit a new agent from promising youngsters, one of the recruits is Eggsy (Egerton), an unpolished street kid under the aegis of Harry Hart aka. Galahad (Firth), one of the top Kingsman who is indebted to Eggsy's deceased father, also a former Kingsman. During the boot camp, Eggsy befriends another recruit Roxy (Cookson), as the world is going to experience a holocaust schemed by a billionaire and radical elitist Valentine (Jackson) through his free SIM cards distributed to every corner of the globe. While all the rich and famous are privileged to survive in the new Noah's Ark constructed by Valentine, as long as they are conceded to implant a chip into their brains so that Valentine can have the full reign over them. In general, it is a partisan aggression to counteract the swelling global population which will endanger the entire human race. In hindsight, this execution is the major weak link in this otherwise inventive script, it is far more efficient to annihilate his targets if Valentine can simply detonate the self-explosion program designed in his SIM cards, if he could and should have been a bit more clever and as we all know, the chosen scenario is only to make the movie apparently dazzling for its special effects.
It is a no-brainer that Valentine's plan is doomed to founder in a typical last second endgame to maintain the suspense on the high-point, but Vaugh and his co-writer Jane Goldman gallantly deploy a take-no-prisoners manoeuvre to outrun audience's common sense of "we don't need to worry about our heroes, as Bond will never die in the movie", more impressive, it is the work of visual department, from the grand opening aerial shot, the highly-entertaining action-in-suit and swift parkour, to the adrenaline-surging church massacre in a stylish and perfectly coordinated slow-mo technique, and the final game-changing heads-will-explode firework, they are all high-end spectacles can suffice audience of today. Plus the movie has moderately good humour, it salutes without descending into snobbishness when tries to reanimate the nobleman brand of espionage.
Colin Firth finally finds himself in a box-office gainer in the nadir of his post-Oscar bad career choices, and he is great here too, even in the action sequences, he should go on a profitable path as the noble version of Liam Neeson in the middle-aged killing-machine type. Newcomers Egerton and Cookson are genially well-chosen in the rookie plot-setting, but they do not exhibit ample allure to lead in a sequel all by themselves, so I guess some big name can still wait for his casting call. Also Mark Strong takes a hefty task in the game, first as a ruthless trainer, then a valiant pilot, an omnipotent computer hacker, and a professional ass-kicker. But the most indelible character is Sofia Boutella's Gazelle, Valentine's hench-woman, an extremely dangerous double amputee killer. Ultimately the film lifts the bar of our appreciation of heavy-budgeted blockbuster, and sends a defiant message for the cutting-edge industry to emulate.