With a theatrical release on January 6, 2022, it was one of the first potential blockbusters of the year. However, after hardly anyone went to the cinema for “The King’s Man: The Beginning”, the comic actioner is already landing on Disney+ today.
Matthew Vaughn lives his love of comics and superheroes at its best. After “Kick-Ass” and “X-Men: First Class”, he not only filmed another heroic adventure with “Kingsman: The Secret Service” in 2015, but also actively participated in the development of the template. So it’s no wonder that the snotty and bloody universe of agents is still very important to him to this day. After the Briton had already announced several sequels, spin-offs and even a TV series, “The King’s Man: The Beginning” was released on January 6, 2022 as the prequel, which had been repeatedly postponed in advance. In view of the worldwide import, however, it is questionable whether the potential mega franchise will actually become something in the end.
With pure production costs of 100 million dollars, the film grossed just 126 million dollars – a negative business for Studio Disney, after all the advertising costs are just as little included in the budget as the taxes that are still due to cinema operators. Less than seven weeks after the theatrical release, the film is likely to reach a much wider audience from today – because The King’s Man: The Beginning is available now on Disney+ at no additional charge.
» “The King’s Man” bei Disney+*
However, even fans of the first two “Kingsman” films should lower their expectations a little. The historically tinged prehistory cannot quite keep up with them…
“The King’s Man” – why so serious?
With almost 100 years before the adventures of Harry Hart (Colin Firth) and Eggsy (Taron Egerton) playing “The King’s Man: The Beginning”, director and screenwriter Vaughn tells – as the title already suggests – the origin of the super-secret spy organization.
In the midst of the murderous hustle and bustle of the First World War, the first kingsmen around the Duke of Oxford (Ralph Fiennes) and the young Conrad (Harris Dickinson) get it with, among others, the “Nazi clairvoyant” (Daniel Brühl), the diabolical Russian Rasputin (Rhys Ifans ) and super spies Mata Hari (Valerie Pachner).
While Matthew Vaughn also unleashes some strong action sequences and one or two crazy ideas in the prequel, In the end, “The King’s Man” is a tonally rather torn, quite overloaded and far too serious heroic adventure – and for us the weakest part of the series so far. In the end, the official FILMSTARTS review gave it just 2.5 out of a possible 5 stars.
Also new to Disney+: “The French Dispatch”
We already liked “The French Dispatch”, the new film from “Grand Budapest Hotel” and “Moonrise Kingdom” director Wes Anderson, much better than the comic spectacle. In any case, fans of his star-studded, candy-colored, quirky stories get “as much Wes Anderson as can fit in 103 minutes”, as the official FILMSTARTS review says.
» “The French Dispatch” bei Disney+*
In his latest coup, the exceptional filmmaker takes us to the fictional French town of Ennui-sur-Blasé, where the founder of a legendary daily newspaper (Bill Murray) dies and four unforgettable stories that were published in the newspaper are finally relived – in which we meet, among other things, an imprisoned artist (Benicio del Toro) and his muse (Léa Seydoux) and the reporter Lucinda Krementz (Frances McDormand), who is flirting with a young revolutionary (Timothée Chalamet).
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