Comparison between Kingsman: The Secret Service and Skyfall

Kingsman: The Secret Service is an action, adventure comedy produced in 2014 and released on 24th January 2015. This film was based upon a comic book. This film was directed by Matthew Vaughn who has also directed X-Men First Class and Kick-Ass. Kingsman: The Secret Service tells the story of a secretive organisation comprised of spies and agents. This film is based around the idea of backgrounds due to Colin Firth's character Harry Hart being a well brought up man and on the other spectrum is Taron Egerton's character Gary 'Eggsy' Unwin who is seen to be in a very disruptive environment and not very structured other than the counsel flats he lives in. The film shows the organisation recruiting into an ultra-competitive training program that sets a lot of twists and traps. There is a global threat but who will be the next Kingsman, and will it be just army scare or a real life nightmare.

Skyfall is an action thriller and takes on a very similar but distant feel to Kingsman. Skyfall was released on the 9th November 2012 and is the 23rd installment in the James Bond films. This film was directed by Sam Mendes who has also directed the new James Bond film Spectre, which is being released on the 6th November 2015.When Bond's latest assignment goes gravely wrong agents in the agency are compromised and exposed, leaving them to their terrifying faits. MI6 is attacked and compromised from both inside and out forcing M to relocate the agency. The events cause her authority and position to be challenged by the new Chairman Gareth Mallory played by Ralph Fiennes. M is left with one ally she can trust: Bond. 007 aided only by Eve played by Naomie Harris. Following a trail to the mysterious Silva play by Javier Bardem, whose hidden motives have yet to be revealed.

The films also differed in budget largely showing the different audiences and also the way James Bond has a following of all ages due to the old films, unlike Kingsman which is seen as a younger version of the same kind of story. The budgets reflected this. James Bonds box office in as $1,108 million while their budget for production was $150-200 million, therefore the profits were high. Kingsman on the other hand earned a lot, with a budget of $8 million they had a great success in the fact they racked in $412.4 million. Both these films are a great example of how the British films are becoming a lot more successful in regards to the other countries.

Skyfall and Kingsman seem to be alike in the aspects of being about spies and the undercover world we know nothing about, but their are differences and this is what makes them unique and successful on their own accord.

Kingsman: The Secret Service in my opinion is aimed at a very different audience to James Bond as I feel it connects a lot more with the younger generation, like young boys who likes actions and the idea of being strong and unstoppable. Unlike James Bond which is aimed at yes a younger audience but also the generations that have grown up with the older films and have watched them all waiting for the next installment. James Bond shows dominant ideology in the way Daniel Craig is a middle aged, middle class white man and is very well dressed. Although Kingsman shows this aspect in the old Kingsman and Harry Hart, they show a different kind of character which is a young boy who is not properly spoken, mannered or dressed up to the expectation but instead breaks the mould of what many have in their mind of what he should be. This is however in the beginning, but as the film progresses you see Eggsy become what the mould should be but with his own style which is very effective. The film includes aspects of humour which is unlike James Brond which seems a lot more set in its ways and serious. The humour in the film is effective to keep it down to earth and remind the audience that it is like any other boy and still has his youth, like the 'arsehole' bit in the film. 

James Bond on the other hand is a lot more set and proper in the way it is presented but also the content, due to it still wanting to attract the audience and the many that have watched from the beginning. Skyfall has a lot more action then Kingsman only due to the fact that they have a lot more explosions and car chases which is really what bond is known for. It's hard to compare as both films have a lot of similarities including the genre themes e.g. Action, being the hero and saving the day in the end. A major similarity is that between the antagonists, both having something that is seen as a weakness, Samuel L Jackson's lisp and then Javier Bardems character which had acid in his mouth and down his thought so had to wear a brace like thing which holds up his face. These weaknesses show that it makes them want to be even worse because they are not taken seriously due to this but as it goes further along in both films you are able to see that they become to vain with power and that creates then to lose control, and that is when both films become alike in the way that the protagonist beats them at their own game.

The representations in both films are very directs and prominent but different in the two films. Firstly in Kingsman: The Secret Service you are able to see the representation of visibility in regards to Sofia Boutella's character Gazelle, who is seen to have a disability with her legs as she has blades in replacement for her lower legs. Even though she has a disability she is seen to be a strong character in the way that in the onset of the film she is seen to split a man in half with just her legs, showing a breaking of the mould of people with disability, as they are usually represented as having tough lives, being weak but this film and things like the Paralympics break peoples perceptions of this. Also in Kingsman there is a representation of female characters as breaking the perception and fighting through the dominant male roles in this film. An example of this is Sophie Cookson's character Roxy who is seen to be a lot smaller than any of the other characters and a very different body type to the boys being less strong, but as this progresses you are able to see her strive for and excel past the 'strong' boys and be crowned the last man standing. The new Kingsman.
James Bond's representation is a little different from Kingsman as in Kingsman Roxy is presented as strong and working in a man's dominant environment much like Naomie Harris's character Eve in Skyfall. Although Eve is seen to be in that environement all the women in Bond are a lot more sexualised. Bérénice Marlohe's character is seen to be very dominant, mysterious and sexy in the way that she meets Bond and leads him to her death. You can see she holds a lot of the audiences attention and you know each Bond girl is seen for her beauty, body type and attraction. A character such as Eve in any other film would be a partner, but in this you feel the chemistry between her and Bond, during the shaving scene you understand that she is also a very dominant character. Also her character is represented by a black woman which hasn't been done in any of the other Bonds which shows how the times have developed since the 1960's.

Masculinity in both films is a very prominent theme in both Kingsman and Skyfall. In Kingsman Eggsy is respectful of his motherland younger half sister but also towards Roxy, without being condescending, this is his version of masculinity and this is what Harry Hart encounters, unlike the other boys who seem to be disrespectful towards the girls but also the 'unprivileged' Eggsy. When he meets the other 'privileged' and upper-class boys they seem to bond over making him feel shit, but that doesn't get him down he builds a bond with the other girls and sees them come together. This type of masculinity is quite hard to see as it is not the usual type you would see from his on the surface, which is build and healthy but instead it is his inner masculinity that makes him special. James bond's masculinity is a lot more about appearance and ability but he is still respectful but from a different background to Eggsy. It does show that even from a different background you can become the same person, so people who blame society and education that is only a factor, it is yourself who makes you the person you are and not the education you are given, Eggsy is a prime example of this.