Kingsman: The Golden Circle review

KINGSMAN: THE GOLDEN CIRCLE:

INSANELY FUN FOR THE MOST PART BUT UNDERWHELMING AND REHASHED IN OTHER AREAS!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: ** ½ out of 4

20^TH CENTURY FOX

Taron Egerton is back as Eggsy in Kingsman: The Golden Circle

            Director, Matthew Vaughn (Stardust, Kick-Ass, X-Men: First Class) returns to the world of Kingsman in the sequel to the 2015 action hit, Kingsman: The Secret Service based on the comic book series by Kick-Ass creator, Mark Millar and Watchmen co-creator, Dave Gibbons. At first glance Kingsman: The Secret Service sounded like a lazy cash-grab to capitalize on the success of spy films like the Bond and Bourne franchises, but little did we know we were actually getting a frantic and chaotic action movie that ended up being a blast.

            So now we have the sequel, Kingsman: The Golden Circle featuring Taron Egerton (Lewis, Eddie the Eagle, Sing), Colin Firth (A Single Man, The King’s Speech, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), and Mark Strong (Sherlock Holmes, Kick-Ass, Miss Sloane) reprising their roles as Eggsy, Harry, and Merlin. Like the first film, The Golden Circle cranks up the insane stylized action with a sophisticated edge, dark humor, and star-studded cast while expanding on the world of Kingsman and offering more bizarre homages to other spy films (When have you ever seen a Bond movie where the bad guy’s fortress is in a colorful amusement park-like setting?).

            However, the movie does fall victim to a lot of sequel trappings like trying to cram as much into the film as possible, a somewhat rehashed script, overblown CGI in action sequences, and need we forget that 141-minute runtime? Yeah, that’s a minute longer than Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins and it really doesn’t need to be that long.

            After a missile destroys the Kingsman headquarters Eggsy (Egerton) and Merlin (Strong) must venture to the United States to gain the assistance of the Kingsman cousin organization known as Statesman to stop a ruthless drug lord named Poppy (Julianne Moore-Magnolia, Crazy Stupid Love, Still Alice) from poisoning the world with a virus in her drugs that causes death. Eggsy and Merlin soon discover that their old friend and mentor, Harry Hart (Firth) survived his bullet wound from Richmond Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson’s character from the first film) and is suffering from amnesia with no memory of Eggsy, Merlin, and being a Kingsman.

            With the aid of Statesman agents, Jack Daniels (Pedro Pascal-The Adjustment Bureau, Narcos, The Great Wall), Tequila (Channing Tatum-21 Jump Street, Magic Mike, Logan Lucky), Ginger Ale (Halle Berry-X-Men franchise, Swordfish, Monster’s Ball), and Champ (Jeff Bridges-The Big Lebowski, Iron Man, True Grit (2010)) Eggsy and Merlin must jog Harry’s memory and save the world before the War on Drugs amplifies to bloody levels.

            The film also stars Bruce Greenwood (Double Jeopardy, Capote, Batman: Under the Red Hood) as the President of the United States, Emily Watson (Gosford Park, Punch-Drunk Love, Everest) as Chief of Staff Fox, Edward Holcroft (Vampire Academy, Wolf Hall, London Spy) as Eggsy’s rival and Poppy’s henchman, Charlie Hesketh, Hanna Alstrom (Bert, Cleo, Crimes of Passion) as Eggsy’s girlfriend, Princess Tilde, Sophie Cookson (Moonfleet, Unknown Heart, The Huntsman: Winter’s War) as Eggsy’s best friend, Roxy, Michael Gambon (Sleepy Hollow, Harry Potter franchise, Fantastic Mr. Fox) as high-ranking Kingsman official, Arthur, and a really bizarre cameo by Elton John.

            Overall, Kingsman: The Golden Circle is a relentlessly fun but at times underwhelming follow-up that falls victim to sequel and spy movie cliché trappings. Plot wise there isn’t much new here, if you’ve seen the first one then you already know what to expect, a spy organization has to take down a criminal mastermind related to a New World Order.

            It’s much of the same with plot structure, but everything surrounding the plot is expanded on and offers new elements that weren’t in the first movie. I loved how the Statesman was set up as the American Kingsman and that they use things like electric cowboy lassos, whips, baseballs that are actually hand grenades, and mine-detecting baseball bats which is a very clever take on what the Kingsman arsenal is like, just add American pastimes.

            Julianne Moore does a solid job as the villain though at times she comes off as trying to be like Samuel L. Jackson from the first movie (minus the lisp thank Christ!). She looks all sweet at first (despite being a drug lord) but cross her back and she’ll do something crazy like throw you in a meat grinder or have her robot attack dogs rip you in half (Did I mention there are robot attack dogs in this movie that look like they were on-loan from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen?), yeah, this movie goes from what you’d expect to completely ridiculous and crazy shit.

            Moore aside the rest of the cast is good, Egerton has definitely stepped up his game this time around and became an unexpected badass, Mark Strong still gets plenty of laughs, Colin Firth is impossible to despise no matter what he’s in and he still kicks plenty of ass as Harry, Halle Berry is good as the Statesman tech expert, and Jeff Bridges is pretty much if The Dude ate Rooster Cogburn…so he’s Jeff Bridges.

            However, I was rather disappointed by the film’s climax because it’s more of the same, two Kingsman agents battling a bunch of guards, shooting and stabbing, and really exploitive of the camera work used in the first movie. I was hoping for more screen-time with the Statesman and thought they would play a bigger role in the final showdown but they’re pushed off to the side and we get another one of those “Unexpected Villain” scenarios that probably didn’t need to happen.

            Kingsman: The Golden Circle definitely feels more like a comic book than the first film which can either be a strength or a weakness. Nevertheless, it still delivers on the crazy action sequences and fun, what else can I say but Manners Maketh Man!