Review – Kingsman: The Golden Circle
According to the Kingsman, “Manners maketh man.” According to Hollywood, “Sequels maketh money”, which is why we have Kingsman: The Golden Circle, a mildly entertaining, yet overlong and unnecessary sequel to the 2014 hit.
When their headquarters are destroyed and the world is held hostage, Eggsy (Taron Edgerton) and Merlin (Mark Strong) journey to the U.S. to get assistance from an allied spy organization known as the Statesman in order to stop the evil Poppy (Julianne Moore) from unleashing her diabolical plan.
The first Kingsman (2014) film was something magical. It was a comic book adaptation that was unlike any we had ever seen before. It was a smooth, fun, exciting flick that popped with color. It introduced us Taron Edgerton and Sofia Boutella, gave us one of Samuel L. Jackson’s funnest performances, and showed that Colin Firth is a certified badass. How could they possibly top that? Well, the simple answer is that they don’t. The Golden Circle falls victim to the overblown sequel trend that has plagued Hollywood for years. Instead of expanding characters and digging more into mythology, these sequels end up using their bigger budgets for more characters played by big name actors, huge locations, and more special effects. Some of this pays off, most of it doesn’t.
I liked the addition of the Statesman, but wish they had an overall bigger role in the movie. They are only really in the movie for a quarter of the time and only are only there to help the Kingsman with money and weaponry after their headquarters is blown up. Maybe a Statesman movie is in order to learn more, but from what I took away from the ending of this movie, I doubt it. My favorite Statesman was Whiskey (Pedro Pascal). He is on camera more than any other Statesman, which is wild, seeing as the other four actors portraying Statesman agents are Jeff Bridges (Champagne), Halle Berry (Ginger Ale), and Channing Tatum (Tequila). Whiskey is also the forefront of one of the best scenes in the movie, where Whiskey takes out a number of henchmen with his six-shooter, lasso, and whip all by himself.
Julianne Moore as the villainous Poppy is fun to watch. Similar to Samuel L. Jackson’s Valentine, Poppy has a very happy-go-lucky way of dishing out her terror. Her diabolical plan focuses on the drug trade and it is an interesting plan that makes you think about the current climate of the war on drugs and really pushes the ethical questions as to what you would do. This is one of the stronger aspects of the film.
But Kingsman wouldn’t be a movie without the actual Kingsman and they’re back in full force in this one, even the dead one from the first film. Once their headquarters is destroyed, most of the Kingsman are dead except for Eggsy and Merlin. When they make it to Statesman, they find out that Harry Hart (Colin Firth) is alive (this isn’t a spoiler, it’s in the trailer) and that he was saved by the Statesman using some fancy technology that brought him back to life, but gave him slight amnesia. They slap Harry out of his amnesia and bring him back to the old Harry, yet with a few side effects. These are the only three Kingsman in the film and they’re all great. Edgerton is excellent as Eggsy, though Eggsy as a character isn’t nearly as interesting as he was in the first. His rags-to-riches story really carried the first film and in this one, his biggest problem is deciding whether or not he wants to marry a princess, which isn’t nearly as captivating. It’s great to see Firth kicking ass once again, but Harry’s transition from recovering amnesiac with slow reflexes to Harry from the first film in a matter of a couple scenes felt really off to me. That being said, Firth is still awesome. Mark Strong gives far and away my favorite performance in this film. Merlin gets a bigger role here and even gets some action in the field. He works perfectly with Berry’s Ginger Ale and hits the movie’s emotional high-point with his rendition of John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” (oddly enough, the second Channing Tatum movie this year to feature that song prominently after Logan Lucky).
The budget for this film was about $20 million more than the first film and they used every penny and then some to make this the biggest, baddest movie they could. This movie defines globe-trotting spy movie, as it takes us all over the world from England, to Kentucky, to Cambodia, to Italy and many other places. I was slightly annoyed with all the scenic world hopping, as it took me out of the plot and story to focus on the visuals. Also, the movie runs far too long and gets redundant after a while. I think I checked my watch half a dozen times hoping something new was going to happen. Sure, we do get some awesome, well choreographed fight scenes set to unconventional pop songs, but those can only take a movie so far. In the first film, coupled with the fight scenes, was the story of Eggsy and a bunch of hilarious, edgy comedy and the comedic aspect is what is missing here. I laughed a couple times, but a lot of the jokes felt incredibly forced and even cringe-worthy, like everything done by popstar Elton John, who has a bigger role than he has any right to have. I wasn’t the only one who wasn’t laughing, as the entire theater was mostly quiet during the entire runtime, which is a true shame.
Kingsman: The Golden Circle is a decent film, but one that doesn’t capture the fun and excitement of the original. The action is thrilling and the performances are good, but the movie is too big for its own good in terms of scale and run time and falls flat on a comedic level.
Did you see Kingsman: The Golden Circle? What did you think? Comment below or hit me up on Twitter and Instagram, @kevflix, or on Facebook by searching Kevflix.