Ludicrous in Every Sense

Rating: 5/10 (10 May 2016)

Matthew Vaughn has proved himself to be a talented and versatile director, touching upon the crime, fantasy and superhero genres with mostly positive results. With Kingsman his focus turned to creating the most extravagant spy spoof imaginable. In its simplest terms, Kingsman is to the James Bond film series what Kick-Ass is to the average superhero film. Every aspect is pushed to its limits in an attempt to create a wild mix of shock and awe. It's brash, crude, ultra- violent, highly stylised and full of exaggerated characters. Where Kick-Ass worked because of its wit and overblown set-pieces, I feel that Kingsman is just too straight-forward and juvenile in its humour to truly succeed despite some impressive features.
The plot is pretty basic as we see down on his luck chav Eggsy join a secret spy service named Kingsman which his father had once belonged to, undertaking training and attempting to stop an internet mastermind from taking over the world. The issues with the plot are mainly to do with its simplicity in that we've seen this type of story so many times. Once you know the beats everything else goes out the window, we know Eggsy will use his skills to be a part of Kingsman and that makes the entire training section (which is a good third) obsolete. You certainly have to admire the film for just how big the plot is and how excessive it is willing to go in attempts to spoof Bond, but a lot of it is tired and predictable.
In terms of its comedy and spoof attempts the film is very mixed. The more straight British humour is always welcomed and Jackson provides plenty of amusement with his over-the-top villain. Plus anything references the Bond series usually stands out too. With that said, there are a lot of puns that just don't work and some of the jokes end up feeling completely out of place. Crude humour can be very effective if used correctly, but I think that the crude jokes are mistimed here and that the film does suffer from becoming too reliant on them at many points. The final joke really does end things on a bum note (pun intended there).
It's hard to fault the cast however. Taron Egerton does a fine job in his big screen debut, handling the comedy with finesse and convincing as a spy in training. Eggsy could easily have been an annoying or unlikeable character so he did well to provide him with such charisma. Colin Firth is excellent as Eggsy's mentor figure Galahad, possessing a smooth charm absent in many of his roles and being surprisingly convincing in the action scenes. Samuel L. Jackson is in top form here with a brilliantly extravagant performance. With a goofy lisp, it's a fun call to the classic early Bond villains with Jackson being engaging and frequently hilarious whenever he's on screen. Mark Strong is good fun as the Scottish technological savvy Merlin. Michael Caine shows up as Kingsman head Arthur though he gets little to do and Sophie Cookson is just okay as Eggsy's sweet teammate.
The film is appropriately stylised and slick looking, reminiscent of Vaughn's X-Men film. It fits the film given its homages to the classic Bond films and other grand spy flicks, though I think the villain's lair could have been more creative. Sadly the score by Henry Jackman and Matthew Margeson is very forgettable, as instead of doing a take on the scores of the Bond or Bourne films it just turns into a generic action soundtrack with little to remember. Despite the films spoof nature there aren't as many references as there could have been and I think the film would have been more fun had it made these clearer. The action sequences are arguably the highlights of the film. They are filmed excellently and with a real sense of flair, with the church scene in particular being delightfully chaotic.
Kingsman is undeniably fun at times and does have some understanding of how to poke fun at its subject matter. The problems I have with it are mostly down to its simplistic plot line and over-reliance on crude humour. It's a story we've seen too many times and it really missed a trick not taking apart the typical spy formula more. Whilst the jokes can work, I feel that there is a lack of wit to much of the comedy and it appears to backtrack to crudeness whenever it's unsure of what to do next. With that said I do find the acting enjoyable with Jackson really standing out, the action is outstanding and the film does have an unquestionable style. I think the potential for a great film was here, but we'll have to make do with enjoying the fun pieces placed throughout.