When I first watched this I thought it was a refreshing addition to the current spy movie genre, because: The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is riveted by its own style and aesthetic, somewhere in between the gritty realism of Bond and the flashy theatrics of Kingsman.
Looking at the waterboat chase scene and the lightbulb torture scene in particular, its pretty obvious that there were other, more realistic ways to do this. Before we go into it, you can find the 2 scenes below:
For the first, Solo could’ve just gone into the truck and waited it out. There was no need for the close-ups of his hand toggling the radio channels, the dramatic opera music. There’s even less need for the amount of time given for Henry Cavill to convey surprise and opportunistic smugness at the wine, smell it, take a sip and then repeat the action with the sandwich. Illya’s boat doesn’t need to explode flashily in the reflection in the windshield, and Solo definitely doesn’t need to drive the truck into the water. For the lightbulb torture scene? We don’t need the lingering on the way Rudy grasps the lightbulb, turns off the lights and then sets the lightbulb swinging, plus the lens flare too? and at the end we also don’t need the entire chair bursting into flames.
But for me, personally, I love how extra this movie is! It honestly takes skill to make something this stylishly extra, and in The Man from UNCLE, the camera revels in it. It lingers on actions and visuals that aren’t needed, but emphasise the suave and sexy, and its characters’ effortless charm in the face of danger. And this works because this movie plays on the nostalgic, romanticised style of the past, where spies always walk out alive, every hair in place, while still keeping it fresh and current with the addition of Gabby and the clash between Illya and Solo’s masculine egos. This stylish extra-ness, to this movie, is what explosions are to the Michael Bay Transformers series, or dance is to the Step Up movies — it’s part of its identity, which is why this is my favourite spy movie ever.