Also known as the Lynyrd Skynyrd Church movie. Fucking phenomenal cinematography throughout, but it’s highlighted the most in that scene. I don’t know what it’s called specifically, but it’s almost as if they remove frames from the more action-y shots and give it this choppy style. With the sudden warp-zooms in parts, the fights really pop in ways that befit this story’s comic book origins. The music’s also stellar. UK street hits early on (as my Yank ass defines the catchy music when Eggsy nicks one of Dave’s cronies’ car for a joyride with his pals) and “Give It Up” to a global shot of total no-holds-barred apocalyptic bloodshed. It’s a movie that revels in violence, but cheeky violence. I had forgotten the scene of all the world sellouts being explosively decapitated in vivid fireworks; it’s a scene up there with V for Vendetta’s destruction of Parliament.
It’s a fun movie, through and through. Colin Firth is an excellent choice for sophisticated old-school expertise, and Taron Egerton won me over fast with Eggsy’s blend of street voice, golden morals and a fusion of gentlemanly manners with a modern twist on it. There’s subtlety in this movie too, not so much to detract from the main objective of a fun spy romp with great visuals, but something to give some meat on a rewatch. Though since this is technically my second watch, I found that my favorite scene wasn’t the church one this time around, but one right after it where Galahad’s shot by Valentine. It’s actually hard to properly subvert expectations without coming across as doing it solely for shock value, but Kingsman really isn’t the typical kind of spy flick. It’s not trying to be subversive or against the typical spy flick, it just is different because that’s how it was made. I feel like a lot of so-called subversions in media these days (including the preceding 10-15 years) are less subversions and more rejections. A lot of it is simply following the leader—a film, game or show does X thing and suddenly a lot of other productions are doing X thing, or X-adjacent if there’s a little thought put into them. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fond fan of obeying cliché where it just feels right, but have a reason. Don’t let external factors beyond passion for the product intervene more than they have to. Kingsman is a movie made by a large production and naturally there was likely oodles of executive meddling. But the passion of the film crew and actors still came through, in the form of just enjoying the role like Samuel L. Jackson or that lovely stuttering cinematography throughout. I hear the subsequent movies aren’t as good, but fortunately I’ve only ever walked out on one movie in my life. Fuck you, Annihilation: Earth.
