There’s no denying The King’s Man is arguably the weakest installment of the franchise. It is never truly sure what it wants to be, and while there are fun moments, they are few and far between. While The King’s Man comes with plenty of extras, they’re not enough to make fans want to revisit the film.
The Blu-Ray for The King’s Man is packed full of extras including The King’s Man: The Great Game Begins. For fans of Rhys Ifans‘ over-the-top performance as Grigori Rasputin, there’s plenty to enjoy. “A Generation Lost” has director Matthew Vaughn explaining his decision to go back to the beginning with this latest installment. As he reveals, he initially envisioned the prequel as a television series rather than a movie. He ultimately wanted to make a war epic, though, and thus he decided to make it into a film instead. The segment spends most of its 11-minute timeframe reflecting on the franchise as a whole and the birth of the prequel. It’s not the most interesting bit on the extras.
“Oxfords and Rogues” features Vaughn and the cast talking about the film, with the director acknowledging the cast is what makes the film. At eighteen minutes in length, “Oxford and Rogues” doesn’t have too much to offer, but for those looking for the cast’s input, it’s a fun watch. “All the World’s a Stage” is one of the longer featurettes, clocking in at twenty-six minutes. It delves into how the crew went about crafting this vast world. Of the featurettes, “All the World’s a Stage” is one of the more interesting clips because you get to see how Vaughn and the others built this stunning world; from war zones, to the Kingsman storefront and a goat filled mountain, the stage work remains one of the better parts of the film.
“Instruments of War” breaks down the variety of weapons in the film. Oddly enough, the featurette on the weapons is more exciting than the use of the weapons on screen. The reasoning for this? The fight scenes were lacking in The King’s Man, so it makes it difficult to truly care to be familiarized with the weapons. “Fortune Favors the Bold” turns the focus to the film’s score as it takes viewers behind the scenes to see the orchestra at work. The final featurette is “Long Live the Kingsman.” The shortest of the featurettes, “Long Live the Kingsman” focuses on the future of the Kingsman series, as well as its impact. As far as features go, this is, unfortunately, the weakest of the bunch. It’s something that could’ve easily been used to advertise the Blu-Ray, rather than as a bonus feature.
The No Man’s Land featurette, “The Silent Knife Fight Sequence Breakdown” is one of the better featurettes. It showcases actual footage from stunt practice, as well as a look at the storyboards and actual footage from that time used as a guide. Although the film fails to have great fight scenes, the silent knife fight is admittedly one of the most fascinating scenes in the film — it’s powerful, thrilling and well-executed.
The final featurette “Remembrance and Finding Purpose” honors actual members of the military. While this doesn’t necessarily focus on the film, it’s a nice touch given that it’s set during WWI. It’s one of the best extras because it offers a real-world aspect to this otherwise fictitious world.
Overall, if you enjoyed The King’s Man, you’ll love the extras on the Blu-Ray. If you didn’t care for the movie, though? It’s sadly not worth the time.
You can read our review of The King’s Man here.
