Eis it because he has been vegetating for two years on the shelves of Disney that The King’s Man: First Mission has a little stale bread aftertaste? Not inedible, far from it … But clearly without the freshness of the two previous opus, relics of an old pre-Covid world where blockbusters were released on time, without exceeding their expiration date. Pushed back no less than seven times since its initial release window (November 8, 2019), both for health reasons and to make room for priority blockbusters from parent company Disney, The King’s Man: First Mission is therefore finally being deployed in theaters on December 29.
Still in the middle of shooting his next feature film (the thriller Argylle with Henry Cavill as a super-spy, hey, hey!) During our remote conversation, the British director Matthew Vaughn himself has the feeling of a matter settled for far too long: “I shot The king’s man : First Mission it’s been three years now and I haven’t even taken the time to see it in a movie theater. I’m glad he’s finally finally out, thanks to Disney for reserving it for the movies, but I’m shooting something else, and it’s so weird… Time has gone by so fast. Unfortunately for Vaughn, his film is released in a context of unprecedented pandemic worsening which may well run out of attendance (thank you Omicron), while in the United States, his theatrical career turns sour… Whenever it wants not, that does not want!
Rasputin, Lenin and Mata Hari are in a plot …
Gloomy atmosphere therefore and, in fact, the result of The King’s Man: First Mission curiously reminds us of the last reboot of Ghostbusters : we invoke the recipes of the past while changing the decor (here, rather period since King’s man is a prequel set at the dawn of the XXe century), but forgetting to add before cooking the humor and good humor that were the salt of the first shutters. Despite some appreciable qualities, the story leaves the impression of a concept already at the end of the race, with a bastard flavor and which has undoubtedly waited too long before being served. It starts off pretty well with a grandiose introduction worthy of Lawrence of Arabia, located in South Africa in 1902 where, in the midst of the Boer War, Duke Orlando of Oxford (Ralph Fiennes) helplessly witnessed the murder by a sniper of his wife in a Red Cross camp. Just before dying, the unfortunate woman makes him promise to always protect their child, Conrad.
Twelve years later, as global tensions threaten to degenerate into generalized conflict, Orlando prohibits his son from engaging in military matters. But an obscure plot beginning with the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria, in Sarajevo, starts the war … A plot orchestrated from the Scottish moor by a mysterious shepherd, surrounded among others by Rasputin (Rhys Ifans), Lenin ( August Diehl), Mata Hari (Valerie Pachner) and the illusionist Erik Jan Hanussen (Daniel Brühl). The Duke of Oxford and his staunch allies Shola (Djimon Hounsou) and Polly (Gemma Arterton) will lay the foundations for the Kingsman agency to defeat the organization, leading Conrad on their adventure.
We cannot blame Matthew Vaughn and his screenwriter for having lacked ambition and tried to take an original path for the saga: that of uchronia located in the middle of the First World War, in the service of a pacifist message but sometimes flirting a little too closely with conspiracy. An aspect of the script which also made Ralph Fiennes tick at first: “Reading the script, I was worried that this somewhat anarchist humor and this comic approach to violence would be out of place in the context of the tragic loss of life. of the First World War. But I think Matthew managed to respect the notion of mourning and this trauma and that there is a very strong discourse in the film on the notion of sacrifice. We never laugh at the loss and the suffering. “
Look at the world in which The King’s Man emerges: the pandemic, the tensions with Russia and China… It feels like we are on the brink of war again!Matthew vaughn
This is true and this is also the problem with this King’s man schizophrenic, torn between, on the one hand, the DNA of schoolboy and saucy humor of his predecessors and, on the other hand, a realistic violence and a seriousness worthy of the 1917 by Sam Mendes during the long interlude in the trenches. Under the crust of entertainment, Vaughn slipped several seeds of pacifism, but the two flavors seem to coexist more than blend harmoniously into the dough. In the film, King George V, Kaiser Wilhelm II and Tsar Nicholas II, all played by the same unrecognizable actor (Tom Hollander), are presented as three immature and impulsive adults (especially the last two, of course) , never freed from their childhood rivalries. Tensions on which the great villain of the film will surf – a character for his part totally imaginary – to orchestrate the global explosion for ends never really clear in the story.
Uchronies lover – in X-Men: The Beginning, in 2011, he already presented the Cuban missile crisis as a plot fomented by bad mutants – Matthew Vaughn, however, denies playing too lightly with history and flattering the conspiratorial spirit: “I am passionate about history and there is much to learn from the First World War, why and how it broke out, and how it should help us better choose our leaders. Look at the world in which The king’s man fate: the pandemic, threats linked to new technologies, tensions with Russia around Ukraine, with China around Taiwan… We have the impression of being on the verge of war again! »The resonances of this King’s man very European with our tormented present are undoubtedly to his credit and, most importantly, historians will be amused – or annoyed – at the many other tricks Vaughn found to interweave fiction with fact (and notably the Zimmermann Telegram affair) , and this, until the final credits.
The role of Orlando in The King’s Man is a bit my revenge on Bowler hat and leather boots, this turnip that I had the misfortune to shoot!Ralph fiennes
But between several ellipses and a frumpy stake, this disjointed film seems to lose its course several times, including when it goes too far in the tragedy. The boredom remains fortunately confined, thanks to some action scenes with panache of which Matthew Vaughn has the secret, of which the memorable brawl in Russia between Oxford, Conrad, Shola and Rasputin, framed by a camera twirling to the rhythm of theSolemn opening 1812 by Tchaikovsky. The spectacular and wacky finale at the top of a Scottish cliff does not disappoint either in its scale and virtuosity, while Ralph Fiennes proves to be as gifted for the elegance of the noble Orlando as for shootouts, saber duels or tussles with a ram (you’ll see…). Often framed from head to toe in a most fitting wardrobe, Fiennes evokes a Victorian version of John Steed, the classy secret agent with the umbrella and the invincible phlegm of Bowler hat and leather boots. A similarity on which the actor deliberately played, aware that he still drags the role of Steed, which he played, in 1998, in a calamitous film adaptation of the mythical sixties series.
Remember (or not!): It was with Uma Thurman as Emma Peel and Sean Connery as the villain. The affair was a flop and the laughing stock of critics: Fiennes can laugh about it in turn today, but the odd cost him dearly and his career did not really regain its luster until 2005 with the magnificent The Constant Gardener by Fernando Meirelles. “Yes, I had the misfortune to play in this unfortunate version of Bowler hat …, which turned out to be a huge turnip and a very big personal disappointment. I saw The king’s man like a revenge and a second chance to reinvest this figure of the swashbuckling gentleman, the quiet man who does not look bad until he draws his sword. I also thought a lot about Spencer Tracy in A man came by by John Sturges. »The shadow of the past hangs decidedly over this The King’s Man: First Mission located a century before the adventures of young Eggsy (Taron Egerton), hero of the first two opus and who will indeed return for an official Kingsman 3, whose shooting will begin in the fall of 2022. We compared The king’s man to stale bread at the beginning of this column, and we may have had a bit of a hard tooth. Let’s stay good dough: despite its uneven flavor, this blockbuster catch-all is far from a crust and, of its first mission, entertainment, it fulfills honorably.