Matthew Vaughn has been responsible for a number of entertaining franchises in his time, but the Kingsmen series has earned a place in many viewers’ hearts for its balance of earnest application of “chivalrous” values as well as its slick serving of action and violence. The King’s Man, an admittedly confusing attempt at wordplay with the original series name, takes us back to the birth of the private spy agency and the tragic story that underpins its genesis. I thought I was in for an action thriller, but let me warn you that The King’s Man is deceptively a history retelling that leaves you educated.

The story centres on Orlando, the Duke of Oxford, played by Ralph Fiennes. Scarred by the death of his wife and mother to Conrad, his son, Orlando vows to be a pacifist. World War I plays out and while Conrad wants to serve his country in the military, Orlando outwardly puts up resistance while himself running a personal spy agency.

The movie actually takes you through a number of immersive scenes from actual history, including the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the murder of Rasputin and the explosion of Herbert Kitchener’s ship on his way to Russia. Even though I had briefly studied World War I history in school, I found myself being surprised at how close to reality a lot of the movie’s depictions were. Of course, Orlando’s spy agency and various other plot elements are clearly fictional, but I appreciated the attempt to make history interesting and fun.

The King’s Man is nothing too special – it is an action movie with some cheap laughs and some likeable characters, but sometimes that’s enough to warrant a trip to the cinema.

Here are my ratings:

Cinematography: 3/5

Screenwriting: 3/5

Musical Score: 3/5

Acting/ Performance: 3/5

Overall: 3/5