The King's Man (2021) * * *

Directed by:  Matthew Vaughn

Starring:  Ralph Fiennes, Djimon Hounsou, Tom Hollander, Gemma Arterton, Harris Dickinson, Rhys Ifans, Matthew Goode, Charles Dance, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Daniel Bruhl

The King's Man, the prequel to Kingsman: The Secret Service and Kingsman: The Golden Circle, is unlike its predecessors (or is it successors?) in that it isn't just mind-numbing, over-the-top violence, but finds a way to creatively weave its way into historical events and occasionally pause to reflect on the ramifications of its violence.

"Pause to reflect" is not a phrase synonymous with The Kingsman series, but this one has such an attribute.  The King's Man centers around Orlando Oxford (Fiennes), a British duke who founds the secret organization during World War I which uses maids and butlers as spies in order to gather intelligence on Kaiser Wilhelm, (Hollander), Tsar Nicholas II (Hollander), and the evil, creepy Rasputin (Ifans) as they plot their way to defeat the British and keep the United States out of the war.   Oxford made a deathbed promise to his wife years earlier to keep their son Conrad (Oxford) out of harm's way.  As World War I marches on, Conrad implores his father to let him join the British Army, not knowing of the hell that awaits him which his father knows all too well.

If The King's Man is to be believed, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which led to the start of World War I, and the intervention of the U.S. into the war was due to the machinations of a secret group of evildoers led by a bald man who remains in the shadows with his face concealed from the camera.   Of course, this leads the audience to wonder who this character is, and the answer follows Roger Ebert's Law of Unnecessary Characters.   It's up to Oxford and his group of hired help (some of which are well-trained in fighting and weapons) to thwart these devious plans.

Fiennes is, of course, more than up to the task of behaving as an action hero and as a smart, loving father who understands the horrors of war in ways he son doesn't understand.    This wouldn't be the Kingsman series without occasional flashes of gratuitous shots of heads exploding after being shot, but overall this Kingsman dials down the violence and pauses to reflect on the effect such violence has on others and the world as it turns out.   I was pleasantly shocked by this development and this chapter in the series.