In an age of genre entertainment, Matthew Vaughn is one of the most fascinating filmmakers working in the field. Originally starting out as a producer for filmmaker Guy Ritchie, Vaughn quickly made a name for himself as an exciting voice in blockbuster movies, juxtaposing bright colors and 1960s aesthetics with violent, bloody R-rated action. He is a filmmaker that tends to work in adaptations, having adapted the works of writers like Neil Gaiman, Mark Millar, and Stan Lee. He tends to have frequent collaborators and has a great eye for casting, having found breakout roles for stars like Taron Egerton, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and more. When Matthew Vaughn attaches his name to a project, audiences tend to know what they are going to get and often have a great time.
Vaughn’s next film is Argylle, a spy film for AppleTV+, and is hard at work on wrapping up the Kingsman film series while also developing a Kick-Ass reboot. He has directed seven films since 2004, and each offers a unique interpretation of a classic genre; despite having the potential to become a franchise filmmaker, he has rejected sequels multiple times until recently developing the Kingsman franchise. These are all of Matthew Vaughn’s films ranked.
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7 Kingsman: The Golden Circle
20th Century Fox
Kingsman: The Golden Circle is an oddity in Vaughn’s filmography as it is the first time he followed up on a sequel to one of his films. He produced Kick-Ass 2 and left X-Men: Days of Future Past to pursue Kingsman: The Secret Service. With how much he seemed to love the Kingsman universe, there was plenty of reason to be excited about him directing a follow-up film.
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However, for many, Kingsman: The Golden Circle was a disappointment. In many ways, Kingsman: The Golden Circle falls into many of the pitfalls that followed similar sequels like Men in Black II and Ghostbusters II, where it repeats many of the same beats as its predecessor. The decision to bring back Colin Firth’s character also robs the first film of the emotional impact, and while there are some interesting concepts at play it feels like everyone involved is going through the motions. While many more Kingsman films and spin-offs were planned, it seemed like this sequel killed the franchise goodwill as it was just getting started.
6 Layer Cake
Columbia Pictures
After years of producing films for director Guy Ritchie, Vaughn made his directorial debut with Layer Cake, a crime film that managed to stand apart from those produced by Ritchie. Layer Cake is an important film for many involved, as it was one of the roles that helped secure Craig to the role of James Bond in Casino Royale, and Vaughn would work with many of his future long-time collaborators. The film’s cinematographer Ben Davis would work with Vaughn again on Stardust, Kick-Ass, and The Kings Man and the editor John Harris worked on Stardust, Kick-Ass, and Kingsman: The Secret Service. Layer Cake showcased that even with a small budget, Vaughn had a clear style.
5 The King’s Man
Long delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, The King’s Man is a prequel film to the previous entries in the franchise that explores the founding of the organization. The film is any many ways the most Matthew Vaughn film, as it combines the director’s love of making historical period action films like X-Men: First Class mixed with his love of classic James Bond found in the first two Kingsman movies and the hyper-violence of Kick-Ass.
The King’s Man is history class seen through the lens of a comic book, even down to a crazy post-credit scene that treats World War 2 like an actual sequel. The King’s Man is a roller coaster ride through a real historical period and a fascinating insight into Vaughn’s creative style.
4 Stardust
Paramount Pictures
Stardust might be Vaughn’s most family-friendly film. An adaptation of a story by acclaimed author Neil Gaiman, Stardust is a modern successor to fantasy adventure films like The Princess Bride and Labyrinth. Like many of Vaughn’s films, which mix multiple genres, Stardust is a romantic comedy set inside a fantasy film, and the result is a delightfully entertaining magical movie that Hollywood doesn’t make quite enough of anymore.
Stardust marked the first time Vaughn would work with writer Jane Goldman, and the two would collaborate on the scripts for Kick-Ass, X-Men: First Class, Kingsman: The Secret Service, and the sequel The Golden Circle. With a pre-Daredevil Charlie Cox and Claire Danes in the lead role, the movie is filled with superstars like Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert De Niro and features Henry Cavill and Sienna Miller alongside Vaughn’s long-time collaborator Mark Strong; the cast is as magical as it’s setting.
3 Kick-Ass
Lionsgate
An adaptation of Mark Millar’s graphic novel Kick-Ass, the film takes the comics’ dark nihilistic view of the superhero genre while embracing the optimism found in the concept of superheroes. While the movie interrogates aspects of the superhero mythos like the concept of raising children as weapons by calling them sidekicks, or the level of real violence inflected in the action the movie still acknowledges the optimism that a hero can inspire.
While the film is aiming for superheroes in the real world, Vaughn aims to capture the bright color palette of comic books with each of the main characters having a signature color and the film featuring a highly saturated visual look. Kick-Ass is both a hard R-rated bloody violent action spectacle and a deeply human colorful comedy that showcases his love of blending genres to make a film that is distinctly a Matthew Vaughn picture.
2 Kingsman: The Secret Service
After having collaborated with Mark Millar on Kick-Ass as a send-up of superhero stories, the two worked together on Kingsman: The Secret Service which was a homage to the old classic James Bond movies. However, in a clever twist, it was also a mix of the British boarding school genre stories made popular in the 21st century by the Harry Potter franchise making Kingsman: The Secret Service wholly unique.
Kingsman: The Secret Service serves as a great love letter to classic spy movies, while also updating them with modern R-rated brutality not seen in the genre, and a topical story about class. A star-making performance by Taron Egerton, a revolutionary action turn from Colin Firth, and a great supporting cast of actors like Samuel L. Jackson, Mark Strong, and Michael Caine made Kingsman: The Secret Service a great standalone action film that still holds up today.
1 X-Men: First Class
It would not be an exaggeration to say that Matthew Vaughn saved the X-Men film series. After two disappointing entries with X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men: Origins Wolverine and the emergence of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it seemed like the X-Men film series was past its prime. Enter Vaughn, who breathed much-needed new life into the series by bringing the franchise back to its 1960s origins, embracing a bright colorful aesthetic akin to the original comics, and managed to find actors who could fill the shoes of Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen with James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender respectively, while also allowing those actors to make their depictions of classic Marvel characters entirely their own. The movie also featured early roles for future breakout stars like Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Zoe Kravitz, Caleb Laundry Jones, and Lucas Till.
Vaughn was originally set to direct X-Men: The Last Stand but famously dropped out close to the film’s production start date. He took on X-Men: First Class, and had even less time to prep than he did on The Last Stand (First Class was announced in May 2010 and set for release in June 2011) and with his creative teams already in place managed to bring his unique vision to the X-Men universe. One wonders how the series might have gone had he stayed on board, but even still X-Men: First Class is not only a high mark for the X-Men film series but a bright spot in the superhero genre, and Matthew Vaughn’s best film.
