Maybe 4,5 stars, I really love the Kingsman universe. So fun to see some real historic events. I would love another one like this. And I completely forgot that Conrad died, so unexpected!

A prequel that literally nobody asked for but it's still mad mindless fun with some of the best action sequences in a long time, the Kingsman movies have them generally !!

Went in expecting the best, came out a bit disappointed. Some scenes are wonderfully choreographed and the cinematography and camera work is sometimes Vaughn at his best and are a pleasure to watch, and other times it takes you out of the experience, the fight with Rasputin is perhaps the strongest example. In general the passing was a bit off. But still all in all an entertaining experience, probably more fun, if you're drunk/drink everytime someone says Conrad

The best and the worst part was Rasputin

Why are they trying to make it so long, boring and serious, just give us cool action sequences…

All right, this third installment of the _Kingsman_ series indeed did not feature Eggsy. I was correctly informed back in 2018, when I reviewed the second. (https://trakt.tv/comments/200749) I was pleasantly surprised, then, that this prequel format worked as well as it did. My concerns then about dumping the whole core cast were unfounded. In fact, the whole Oxford family (and staff) were quite good together. Four-letter words are again on prominent display throughout this script—though not _nearly_ to the same degree as in _The Golden Circle_—which bothered me again. But this time, it was down to believability for various combinations of time period and character, rather than a sense of lazy writing. (I'm still not sure what they were going for with Rasputin, the sex-obsessed priest, because the obvious gag seems _too_ obvious.) Perhaps most impressively, the writers actually noticed that the final battle created a slight problem, _and included dialogue about it_. I was wondering, "How will they get down?" from the moment Shola grabbed the lift rope. Said problem was, of course, hand-waved away by a scene cut, but fine. Whatever. The characters at least _mentioned_ it. This film certainly does not belong in the "disappointment" bin alongside its predecessor. It's reasonably fun, if a bit slow at times, and gives us a nice backdrop to explain why things work the way they do way back in the first film. As a bonus, many of the events are based on true history—which is a very nice touch.\* ---- \* — Except for Hitler meeting Stalin in the mid-credits scene. That didn't really add anything.

Franz Ferdinand's death, despite popular rumor, was NOT the catalyst for war, in fact nobody like him, for the most part, and his death was more just a thing everyone was ok with, that was close to the beginning of WWI.