The King’ s Man

“The King’s Man” is an origin story that comes before the two way more entertaining Kingsman films.  Did we really  need an origin story?  I say no, and I really didn’t care for this one. According to the misleading trailer, this looked very much in the vein of the first two which gave us a ton of intrigue, plus Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Samuel L. Jackson and even Elton John.  This one has Ralph Fiennes and Djmon Hounsou (whom I love) but doesn’t give him much to do.   The story starts with Ralph, as the Duke of Oxford, losing his wife as a civilian casualty of the Boer War. She dies in his arms before the eyes of their horrified small son. He vows to do everything necessary to keep his son safe, as it was her dying wish.  In the meantime, some of history’s most evil criminals plot to change events and exacerbate bad situations in World War I to ensure the British lose.  (Playing very fast and loose with history.  There are some plain silly scenes like the one where President Wilson is being blackmailed with a phony sexy film roll!) The worst was a complete waste of 20 minutes or more with Rhys Ifans playing a highly improbable and totally disgusting Rasputin. The real Rasputin, bad as he was, was a choir boy in comparison.  That whole part of the movie could have been edited out with no loss to the story (such as it is).  Most of the action takes place in the last twenty minutes and is fairly well done.  But, I was very disappointed in this one and didn’t feel it kept to the spirit of the first two.  If you must see it, wait until it is streaming, no use throwing your money away.