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| Image courtesy of www.filmfutter.com |
Hello you! The name is Luca but you can call me Luca and welcome back to Red's One-Shot. The blog where I decide to write whatever on earth I like, and have the audacity to expect you all to read it. But feel free to click away and watch a Minecraft Let's Play on YouTube, or be seriously emotionally hurt and want to tell Tumblr. If you do not have the desire to read this, don't worry boo, I understand. It does feel painful, but I get you.
I only recognised it as the film that Matthew Vaughn had opted out of directing X-Men: Days of Future Past in order to direct Kingsman, as he had directed the previous instalment in the franchise, X-Men: First Class. That was all that I had heard at that point, then I saw Jeremy Jahns' review of Kingsman and it did intrigue me, so I went to watch it, and I was blown the absolute fuck away.
Holy shit this film never stopped, nobody expected Kingsman to be as good as it was and it was a huge sleeper success, mostly because of the little amount of people that went to see Kingsman then told the unfortunate soul that went to see 50 Shades Of Grey (Since that was released around the same time as Kingsman), that they missed out big time. This certainly was the case for me, a load of people who know me can definitely vouch for me constantly singing Kingsman's praises to the point where they become borderline sick of me.
So what is this Kingsman movie that I am speaking of? As in, what is it about? So you have Colin Firth portraying Kingsman secret agent Harry Hart/Galahad, and an opportunity is presented to him to propose a candidate to fill a vacated role. Alongside this, we have Gary "Eggsy" Unwin who is a young man living with his mother, his infant half-sister and abusive stepfather on a London council estate. Living the life of a typical chav (That by the way for you Americans, in terms of social status is probably Britain's equivalent of hood people), despite being highly intelligent and capable.
Their paths collide when Eggsy is thrown in jail and calls a number that was given to him on a medal of valour that Harry had presented him after Eggsy's father saved Harry's life and was subsequently killed in action. After meeting Eggsy, Harry decides to offer him a chance of becoming a Kingsman agent, so Eggsy accepts and trains to become a Kingsman along with a group of possible candidates, and all in the mean time, Harry is tasked with finding out what Samuel L. Jackson's villainous Richmond Valentine is up to.
So why do I love Kingsman so much? Overall, it is just plain and simple fun. This is something that we as consumers of film and media should be more lenient towards, since we have this idea that all films have to be the following words, gritty and dark, not in that particular order. I get that some characters and stories need to be portrayed in that way but don't make everything super serious, don't have everything follow the success of The Dark Knight despite how brilliant it really is.
I can't really conjure up one reason yet I am unable to think of them all, but one definite factor in me taking such a liking to Kingsman. I guess where we can start is the story, of how a young kid who is definitely the odd one out when it comes to social status, respectfully earns his right to be there by using actual values over his disadvantage of being not of higher class. It should reflect in real life, that nobody should be judged on their class but more their values, which ties into a quote that Ernest Hemingway said that Harry repeats in the film, "There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.", and I love that quote.
The lore behind Kingsman as well is amazing. Incase you didn't know, Kingsman is actually based on an original line of comics by Mark Millar, who is also responsible for the Kick-Ass comics and the original novel that Captain America: Civil War is based on. In the original comics for Kingsman - which were just titled The Secret Service - the secret service itself was actually not an independent organisation like in the comics, but actually MI6. Not faulting Millar here but the film did this so much better.
So in the film, Kingsman tailors were founded in 1849 (Just like their real world counterpart Huntsman) by some really powerful men who by 1919, lost many of their heirs to World War One so their fortunes would go un-inherited. So these powerful men decided to put all of their money into funding an independent international intelligence agency operating at the highest level of discretion, without any the politics to undermine the bureaucracy of government ran spy organisations. It just seems like Matthew Vaughn really put some time to think of everything, as he apparently came up with the idea when getting a suit fitting at the Huntsman tailors.
With all this rich and unexplored background in the Kingsman universe, no surprise that many people saw this as having franchise potential and why next June, we are having Kingsman: The Golden Circle and I cannot contain myself to see where they go with these amazing characters in this incredible world. I think that's something I loved also, the fact that this property has such potential to be so much bigger than what it already is right now, the possibilities are endless.
For example, I'd love to see a series of video games made based on Kingsman, in the same vein as the what the Arkham games are for the Batman franchise, I even have ideas for who could voice some of the characters. Another thing I'd love to see, an animated series like how DC and Marvel have their own animated series, though I would refrain from doing that if it meant that there would be an interest developing regarding Kingsman among the younger demographic, which I'll speak about now.
Kingsman shares more in common with films like Kick Ass and Deadpool when it comes to sexual references, profanity and bloody violence with its hard R rating, and that last part could not be more emphasised. It's not overly gory but it's bloody and brutal, it may be very over the top but it never becomes almost parody like, it's always riding that ledge to an incredible extent.
Speaking of parody, not that this is one but Kingsman is heavily inspired by the Bond films of old, primarily the Connery and Moore era. That era of Bond is very abundant in this film, with all the fancy gadgets that are very much missed in the modern Bond films, the over the top and absurd nature that the older Bond films were known for, it's a passing of the torch now between Bond and Kingsman. The films with Craig as 007 were a departure from that type of Bond and put it in more of a vein of the Bourne franchise, which isn't a bad thing but this void of funny and campy spy films was very much felt, so Kingsman filling this gap is more than okay with me and I hope it stays that way.
So now the stars of the film, and I am not just talking about the people on screen, I'm also talking about those off camera. First of all, director and writer Matthew Vaughn who in my opinion (Which is fact by the way, I will have you know!) the best at what he does, and has made some amazing movies which include; his directorial debut with Layer Cake, which many consider to be the film that got Daniel Craig the role of Bond, and others include such amazing movies as Stardust, Kick-Ass and X-Men: First Class.
Vaughn's main strength as a director is his ability to film very fluid action scenes, which you'll see in Kingsman with abundance in two scenes in particular. There is a plague in action movies today where you will have the director move the camera like he has grease all over his palms, shaking it to such a degree that you cannot follow the action. Vaughn is the master of being able to film an action scene in such a rapid way that you can follow the action, he insists that his actors do most of their own stunts so he doesn't have any limitations when editing shots in one action scene.
Speaking of actors doing their own stunts, can we give a hand to Colin Firth? He apparently did over 90% of his own stunts, which is even more impressive considering we have not seen him be much of an action hero type of person. Infact seeing Mr. Darcy himself fight some thugs in such an aggressive manner does make you take a step back and be like, "Oh wow!". Same thing with Samuel L. Jackson's villainous Richmond Valentine, you see him and know that Jackson is known for keeping his cool when killing people on screen but then you notice how quirky his character is and it's absolutely amazing to see him wince at the sight of blood or violence.
That is something that Matthew Vaughn is known for as well, casting someone for a role that is a complete contradiction of what they are best known for. Other examples of this stroke of genius include seeing Hollywood tough man Robert De Niro portray a pirate captain in Stardust that loved to dress up as a woman, and also when a barely 13-year old Chloë Grace Moretz was in Kick Ass and you expected her to act all sweet and innocent but she would stab you with a spear and call you a cunt. I can see many examples of actors portraying themselves as their polar opposite in future Matthew Vaughn movies.
Now for our main actor, Taron Egerton who portrayed Gary "Eggsy" Unwin. His charisma and how easy he made this role seem, I remember watching Kingsman and he reminded me so much of young Leonardo DiCaprio, he will be around for a long time and if many of you have been following my blog for a while, will know I'm hoping he gets an Oscar in not too long at all.
It's made all that much more unbelievable when you find out that Kingsman was actually his first feature-length movie, when normally most actors would appear in a small low-budget indie film. He's such a versatile actor, because fast forward a year later and he is playing Eddie the Eagle in the titular biopic alongside Hugh Jackman.
Overall there is so much that can be said about how great Kingsman is, but what I love the most about it? I reiterate and emphasise how fun it really is, and I implore and stress that all of you should go watch it as soon as possible and you will get me.
So I thank you all for your patience. This took so much writing, I had to start over when I read out my first draft but if I have made you intrigued to see this movie, then I have done my job. Watch it and enjoy it you people.
Alright! That will do. Again, I apologise for how long it has taken for me to make this, and I even had to create my last post in an attempt to salvage something for you lot, not that I had no intention of making it regardless because I did. Next post, I'll make sure I can get it out as soon as possible. I have an idea, and I hope you stay tuned for it, so if you want to be notified of when I post next, either follow me on Twitter @TheLucaFormat or if you're on a computer, look for the 'Follow By Email' option in the top right of your screen.
That will do for now. So until we meet again,
Luca.
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