I truly enjoy Mark Millar movies, especially the Kingsman franchise. The plots and characters are usually pretty interesting and things are never taken all that seriously. But the best part of these movies is the violence. Not only are the fight scenes well-choreographed, they are on the extreme side and often executed in ways not seen in other movies. Yes, they tend to lean to the ridiculous, but that’s sort of the point. And the newest installment of the franchise, a prequel titled The King’s Man, holds its own among the chaos.

The first thing I’ll say about this movie is that it’s a bit different from the present-day Kingsman movies. Delving into the creation of the organization, The King’s Man immerses itself in historical events to convey the need for such a group. Obviously, it’s not going for historical accuracy, but the film does a good job of depicting pivotal moments surrounding World War I and simply making fictional characters part of the developments. It’s much more of a war movie than I was expecting and takes a lot of the military aspects very seriously.

There is more depth to the plot than we typically get from the franchise. It’s not free from problems, but it is engrossing to watch. And, of course, there are some ridiculous fight scenes that are more enjoyable than they should be. I mean, when you can work Russian dancing into a sword fight, how can you not enjoy it? And yes, that particular fight does involve Rasputin who, by the way, is not the big bad of the movie that the trailer would lead you to believe.

With a few twists along the way and a surprising degree of emotion, The King’s Man is a worthy prequel and provides a more than reasonable explanation for why and how the organization was established. It also proves that the popularity of the present-day movies isn’t based entirely on the cast of characters. And, even though this was a prequel, I’d be interested in seeing another movie or two following the early days of the group.