On February 22, 2015, a dauntless band of Tycho stalwarts braved the frigid winter blasts to journey to the outer reaches of Toledo cinema territory; i.e. the Fallen Timbers Rave Cinema complex. Their mission: to target and assess "Kingsman: The Secret Service". They were amply rewarded with over two hours of a rollicking, outrageous spy-spoof of a movie. Mission accomplished!
This movie is based on a 2013 comic book miniseries titled simply: "The Secret Service". It was authored by a very talented young Scotsman named Mark Millar. This highly imaginative Scot is also responsible for other deliciously violent comic series that were made into hit movies. Do the titles, "Hitgirl" and "Kickass" ring any bells?
For "The Secret Service" Millar partnered up with artist Dave Gibbons, the illustrative genius who helped create "Watchmen" several years ago... which was also made into a remarkable movie.
For anyone who likes the movie, "Kingsman", I would urge you to check out the Millar comic series. It is only six issues long and the movie actually follows the original comicbook plot fairly closely. But an additional delight to be had in comparing the two are all the 'inside jokes' and pop culture references that we trekkies enjoy so much.
Of course, there are a few key changes the movie makes over the comic series. The main villain in the comic is a youngish computer billionaire type, a la Mark Zuckerberg, named James Arnold. Whereas, the movie taps the incomparable Samuel Jackson for that role and names him Richmond Valentine. Perfectly understandable. I mean, who could pass on Samuel Jackson for over-the-top villainy?!
Also, the comic's chief henchman for the villain is a blade-walking black dude named Gazelle. In the movie, it's a white henchWOMAN named Gazelle played by hottie, Sofia Boutelle.
AND... her blade prostheses double as scimitar slicer-dicers! Again, I would have to chalk that up as an improvement!
But ONE addition the movie makes had me gaping in fanboy awe. The Kentucky church scene where our unwitting hero, well played by Colin Firth, blunders into a test run for the unleashing of the villain's sim-card mayhem influence is just... Well. Let's just say that I will be getting my own DVD of "Kingsman" if only so I can replay that scene in slo-mo!