I finally saw The King's Man on HBOMax and I really liked it. Of course seeing the feedback especially noted on wikipedia it wasn't that great. The cool thing about this film is how it utilized some real historical events as part of the story.
We see that various events of World War One was influenced by this group known as the Flock. They wanted to pit the British, Russian and German empires against each other. And they started with the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo which was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire then. And the events of that unfortunate event was nailed perfectly.
Did you know that the reigning monarchs of Britain, Russia and Germany were first cousins? That was an important part of the story although the reviews I saw noted the personality differences. British King George V was a lot more reasoned, Kaiser Wilhelm II was very aggressive, and the ill-fated Czar Nicholas II was portrayed as weak as he fell under the spell of Rasputin who was yet another member of the flock. One part of The Flock's goal was to take Russia out of the war and isolate the British Empire to insure its defeat.
I also liked certain other aspects of what happened during the four years of war from 1914 to 1918. For example the Zimmermann Telegram was a real thing which was intended to encourage Mexico to go to war against the USA. And it was also correct that then President Woodrow Wilson was not very quick to join the war. Of course one deviation from history involved another member of The Flock the Mata Hari.
From what I do remember Mata Hari was executed in France for espionage. From what I can tell she never quite made it to the US to seduce and blackmail President Wilson to keep America out of WW1. However that was another important plot of The Flock which was foiled once the the first iteration of The Kingsman led by the Duke of Oxford was able to recover film footage of Mata Hari in the Oval Office of the White House seducing President Wilson.
This isn't exactly a war movie but we do see the devastation of WW1. We also see the loss of the Duke of Oxford's son who was shot being mistaken for a German spy. We see him as a concerned father who wants to keep his son out of the war. And then we see his son become the inspiration for creating The Kingsman spy agency.
And another nice touch as President Wilson debates the Zimmerman Telegram at the White House he asks for a Statesman on the rocks. In the Kingsman sequel The Golden Circle, Statesman is a bourbon whiskey distillery which also doubles as an independent spy agency. Just as the Kingsman is a tailor shop that also doubles as a spy agency.
So a few nice touches that keep this movie in the Kingsman film universe and I see opportunities for a sequel. Who's to say that whatever is left of The Flock doesn't turn around and provoke the 2nd World War? We see Adolf Hitler at the end and once Czar Nicholas and his family is executed, Russia is then under the control of Vladimir Lenin who we also see in this movie once Rasputin fails in his mission.
I can't wait to see if The King's Man will have a sequel. If you haven't seem it check out this trailer. [VIDEO]
