When the first trailer for Kingsman: The Secret Service was released some months ago, it was somewhat underwhelming. The footage selected for inclusion made it seem more like an earth-bound Men In Black reboot than an adaptation of The Secret Service comic series by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons (creators of Kick-Ass). It seems we need not have worried, though, because all the trailer needed was more Colin Firth – and that’s exactly what we get in the new trailer, which was just released by 20th Century Fox.
This comic book adaptation comes from the pen of Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman – who previously adapted Kick-Ass with great success – and Vaughn is in the director’s chair once again. That in itself is an outstanding pedigree, but once you add in the source material and epic cast, it is easy to why such excitement is building around this upcoming release.
Millar and Gibbons’ comic sees a super-spy recruit his nephew, who joins up for training just as an unknown group of terrorists begin abducting international celebrities – including Star Wars’ Mark Hamill, who is killed with an agent when an ill-advised parachute rescue goes wrong. The dastardly antagonist is the wealthy Dr. James Arnold – a cellphone entrepreneur who plans to initiate global mass murder through mind control, using his satellite networks. He abducts his favourite celebrities in order to save them from the carnage.
As expected, however, the film is striving to keep it fresh and surprising, with an apparently ‘loose’ adaptation which changes some characters and storylines – while remaining true to the basic concept of the source material. The super-spy and his new recruit are no longer related, and the organisation is less MI6, and more an international intelligence agency named “Kingsman.”
As for the bad guys and their terrible plan – well, we’ll just have to wait and see. We do know that – in a deeply satisfying nod to the source material – the role of James Arnold is filled by none other than Mark Hamill himself. The rest of the cast, led by Colin Firth, includes Taron Egerton (The Smoke), Samuel L. Jackson (The Avengers), Mark Strong (Green Lantern), Michael Caine (The Dark Knight Rises) and Jack Davenport (Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World’s End) – and, judging by this new trailer, they are all performing at the top of their game.
While this latest preview includes many of the elements of the first trailer – the Firth voiceover, the first meeting, the hidden lair, and a few action shots – we get a little more character interaction here and it works very well indeed. The obvious culture clash between Firth’s buttoned-up super-spy and Egerton’s youthful thug seems, in the execution, more entertaining than one would expect such a well-worn trope to be. The supporting cast all do a fine job of emphasising the graphic-novel gravity of the situation, and the visuals – though not exactly stunning – make for arresting viewing. But, it is Colin Firth that steals this trailer, because he is clearly having a fabulous time in this comic-book hero role. We’ve waited decades for the quintessential conservative English gent to have the chance to “let off a little steam.” At last, here it is – and it is glorious.
Kingsman: The Secret Service is released on February 13th 2015. Check out the trailer below.