This is clearly Matthew Vaughn’s attempt to shake things up and expand the _Kingsman_ films into new territory.
While I respect the hell out of that choice (it’s easier to play it safe, because ultimately that’s what most people want), it’s a film that doesn’t quite get the appeal of the franchise.
It’s a film that forgot to keep it simple, character driven and fun, and instead they went with something that’s too plot driven and overly serious, given what the DNA of the franchise is.
A big part of what makes the first film great are its characters. Now, Ralph Fiennes is quite good in this, but Harris Dickinson’s character is very one dimensional (and his performance doensn’t have the charisma that Taron Edgerton gave to Eggsy), and the villains all feel like they’re ripped out of a saturday morning cartoon.
It also struggles with its tone because of that. Like I said before, this is at parts oddly serious for a _Kingsman_ film, and then every time it cuts to the villains it feels like a completely different film and it goes completely bonkers, fully embracing the camp. It kinda reminded me of the first _Wonder Woman_ movie in that regard.
The production makes up for a lot, though. It’s very stylish, you can instantly tell that this isn’t a generic Hollywood production. There’s a lot of personality in the visuals, and the action is well staged (not nearly as tacky as in _The Golden Circle_), I just wish there was a little more of it.
I’d say it’s about as good as the second film. Not really memorable or something worth recommending, but it has its moments.

4.5/10

This movie ended up being quite unique and not in a good way. The uniqueness comes from the fact that I actually agree with the critics rating at that abysmally woke, leftist and useless site Rotten Tomatoes that this movie is not very good. That I agree with that rubbish site is rare indeed.

As a standalone movie I probably would have rated it higher but as a movie in the Kingsman franchise I have to say that it was a disappointment.

The movie sets a quite different tone than the other Kingsman movies. This movie is quite gloomy. The story, which takes the history of the first world war and the Russian revolution and rewrites everything behind those events, is pretty ridiculous. The stories in the two previous Kingsman movies was no masterpieces but this historical rewrite is just wrong. Especially when playing with historical events that has caused more suffering than more or less anything else in modern history.

The coolness of the two previous movies is more or less gone. I cannot figure out if this movie tried to be serious or humorous but it fails on both accounts.

The Duke of Oxford’s overprotection of his son and his pacifism during most of the movie was just tiresome. What eventually happened to his son was rather predictable but the way they did it was like they where just trying to piss the audience off. Incredibly frustrating.

Then we have Rasputin. The entire Rasputin part was mostly alternating between silly and disgusting.

The Duke’s maid/nurse was a nice part though although the actor was not really very good in the role. Also, I am not sure that this “network of domestic servants” felt very plausible.

There were some outbursts of action that was not too bad. Especially towards the end when the Duke finally seemed to get his act together and drop this pacifist rubbish. I do however exclude most the world war scenes from the good action. They were just gloomy, sad and, at times, unrealistic and silly.

Overall this movie was just so unlike the other two movies, and not in a good way, that I really did not like it. It was not really fun to watch. As I wrote it was gloomy most of the time. As it used the events leading to world war one and the Russian revolution it was just one disastrous setback after each other. The only positive event in the movie was really at the end when the Duke of Oxford, founded the Kingsman agency.

Reading the synopsis one might get the idea about the Kingsman agency being created and I hoped more of the movie would have been about the actual creation but the movie is really two hours of long winded often gloomy, sometimes silly, drama and then there are less than two minutes where the Duke of Oxford proclaims the agency created. Not what I expected to be honest.

The origin story itself is interesting. But for a very long beginning, the pacing is weird. Just a succession of short scenes with varying time lapse in between. Until the Rasputin fight that just feels endless as it is such a radical change of pace. After that it's more or less normal.

More serious than the previous ones, which is ok. Golden circle was really wtf. Only the villain association is a parody, that almost looks out of place. Is it because of Brexit that England hates Scotland so much that they'd make a scottish caricature villain the way US used to do with Russia ? And even make him responsible for World War. A bit sad that you can guess who the villain is as he is basically [spoiler]the only other named character in the movie[/spoiler].

Plot is a bit long to start, until they really get into the action. Afterwards it's classic spy half comedy stuff.

The villains are interesting, with a huge part being Rasputin. The Rasputin fight is really good. Ralph Fiennes does a good job but the character is not the most interesting. Thankfully the supporting characters makes up for it. Mostly Shola and Polly but even Conrad has an interesting arc at war (otherwise meh, mostly stupid).

A rather surprising end for [spoiler]Conrad[/spoiler]. Didn't see that coming and that's always a huge plus in a movie.

The final attack on the rock is a bit long and less interesting, but still ok.

It does a good job as entertainment, and at setting up potential sequels. Could have been a tad bit shorter.

A bit weird that the Kingsman founding team, an agency supposed to be avoiding politicians, includes the king himself. And also a random soldier that only ended up there because he was the same clothes size as Conrad...

So, I did not expect this movie. Way darker than the previous ones. Still with humour, though. I really enjoyed it. Really well made. Good effects, good acting, surprising storyline. Did not find anything annoying, whicj rarely happens. I really like this one best of the three Kingsman.

After being delayed multiple times from a planned November 2019 release; Writer/Director Matthew Vaughn has released the third film in the “Kingsman “film series with “The King’s Man”. This time around the movie looks back to the origins of the society dedicated to peace and solving global conflicts before they can escalate.

In pre-World War I Europe; wealthy pacifist Orlando Oxford (Ralph Finnes); looks to raise his son Conrad (Harris Dickinson); following the tragic loss of his wife some years earlier on a Red Cross mission.

When events kick off the war; Conrad wishes to enlist and fight and his father is able to keep this from happening as he wants his son to avoid the horrors of war. At the same time; a secret Cabal has been plotting to start the war and manipulate the outcome and one of the agents named Rasputin (Rhys Ifans); looms prominently due to his influence over the Czar of Russia.

As the years pass and the war unfolds; Conrad and Orlando soon find themselves at odds and being pulled into opposite directions which sets a chain of events into action and puts the fate of the world in the balance.

The film is at times more retrained than the prior two films but the action sequences when they arrive are entertaining and mix the humor and violence that the series is known for. The cast is solid and the way that historical events were used but given an alternate perspective really added to the enjoyment of the film.

The movie does have a decent amount of humor but does spend a great deal of time on character development and exposition which can lead to some long gaps between the action, but the engaging stories and characters hold your interest throughout.

The film sets up further adventures in the Prequel timeline well and it appears that this is the direction that future films may go which would be more than fine as the film delivered what fans have come to expect from the series.

4 stars out of 5