Kingsman: The Golden Circle - Review
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Cast: Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Taron Egerton, Mark Strong, Channing Tatum, Halle Berry, Pedro Pascal, Jeff Bridges
In 2014, Matthew Vaughn delivered Kingsman: The Secret Service, favouring to bring this largely unknown comic entity to the big screen over returning to the X-Men franchise to helm Days of Future Past. The gamble paid off and the action/spy/comedy hybrid grossed over $400 millions worldwide and received high praise from critics. Three years on and imbued with success, the Kingsman have returned and this time, they're going transatlantic.
After the Kingsman's headquarters are destroyed and the world held to ransom by Poppy Adams (Julianne Moore), the head of the world largest drug cartel, Eggsy (Taron Egerton) and Merlin (Mark Strong) connect with their kindred spy organisation in the United States known as the Statesman, Together, they attempt to foil Poppy's plans in a globe-trotting mission that tests their strengths and wits.
Not one to shy away from making a bold statement, Vaughn "eases" us back into the world of Kingsman with a thrilling, albeit physically implausible, action sequence. There's no establishment of what Eggsy and co have been up to since the events of the last film - instead, our diamond in the rough protagonist is catapulted into a perilous situation where a tightly choreographed fight that spills into a high-speed car chase ensues. It defies all the laws of physics and spits in the face of scientific reason but it's cartoonishly entertaining and starts the film off on a memorable high. Whilst the action set pieces that proceed are equally as engaging and comedically violent in true Kingsman fashion, The Golden Circle's other notable qualities fail to rouse the same excitement. The introduction of the Statesman, Kingsman's American counterpart, is a promising development that discouragingly never reaches the heights of its potential as its members are thoroughly underserved. Statesman Agent Whiskey (Pedro Pascal) is the only new character to make an impression; equipped with a glowing lasso and an impressive tache, Whiskey is effortlessly cools and shines in his action scenes.
Eager to emulate and usurp the success of the sleeper hit The Secret Service, Vaughn and co-writer Jane Goldman attempt to make the sequel bigger and better by expanding the scope and retaining the unique tone that audiences love. Whilst The Golden Circle is brimming with ideas and concepts, their execution is flawed and often thoughtless. The writers retread familiar ground with an eccentric villain (played by a respected actor) who has a take-over-the-world complex that involves chemically affecting a mass global audience. Unfortunately, drug-lord Poppy fails to resonate as strongly as Samuel L. Jackson's Valentine, largely because she is given less focus and has to compete for screen time against other narrative strands that the film squeezes into its overstretched run-time.
Vaughn has claimed that his original cut of the film was an eye-watering 3 hours and 40 minutes which suggests that a significant portion of The Golden Circle's plot was left on the cutting room floor in an already overstuffed story. Eggsy's relationship with Swedish Princess Tilde whom he had, ahem, relations with at the end of the first entry in the franchise proves an unwelcome distraction from the more key story beats that deserve more exposure. The scenes that have been omitted are at times achingly obvious as certain arcs are clumsily constructed and are ultimately lacking in effectiveness whilst the film overall is missing a sense of acceptable taste with its attitude to sexual content. A scene where Eggsy must insert a tracking device into a female target's...well, you'll have to watch the film if you want to know the ins and outs (perhaps a poor choice of words), is questionable to say the least and potentially insulting. Vaughn clearly loves to infuse the shock factor into his work but here he has arguably stepped into distasteful territory.
With a stellar foundation to work from and expand upon, Kingsman: The Golden Circle sadly fails to achieve the spectacular quality of the franchise's first instalment and puts to rest the misleading comparative correlative - bigger doesn't always mean better.
EB
Cast: Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Taron Egerton, Mark Strong, Channing Tatum, Halle Berry, Pedro Pascal, Jeff Bridges
In 2014, Matthew Vaughn delivered Kingsman: The Secret Service, favouring to bring this largely unknown comic entity to the big screen over returning to the X-Men franchise to helm Days of Future Past. The gamble paid off and the action/spy/comedy hybrid grossed over $400 millions worldwide and received high praise from critics. Three years on and imbued with success, the Kingsman have returned and this time, they're going transatlantic.
After the Kingsman's headquarters are destroyed and the world held to ransom by Poppy Adams (Julianne Moore), the head of the world largest drug cartel, Eggsy (Taron Egerton) and Merlin (Mark Strong) connect with their kindred spy organisation in the United States known as the Statesman, Together, they attempt to foil Poppy's plans in a globe-trotting mission that tests their strengths and wits.
Not one to shy away from making a bold statement, Vaughn "eases" us back into the world of Kingsman with a thrilling, albeit physically implausible, action sequence. There's no establishment of what Eggsy and co have been up to since the events of the last film - instead, our diamond in the rough protagonist is catapulted into a perilous situation where a tightly choreographed fight that spills into a high-speed car chase ensues. It defies all the laws of physics and spits in the face of scientific reason but it's cartoonishly entertaining and starts the film off on a memorable high. Whilst the action set pieces that proceed are equally as engaging and comedically violent in true Kingsman fashion, The Golden Circle's other notable qualities fail to rouse the same excitement. The introduction of the Statesman, Kingsman's American counterpart, is a promising development that discouragingly never reaches the heights of its potential as its members are thoroughly underserved. Statesman Agent Whiskey (Pedro Pascal) is the only new character to make an impression; equipped with a glowing lasso and an impressive tache, Whiskey is effortlessly cools and shines in his action scenes.
Eager to emulate and usurp the success of the sleeper hit The Secret Service, Vaughn and co-writer Jane Goldman attempt to make the sequel bigger and better by expanding the scope and retaining the unique tone that audiences love. Whilst The Golden Circle is brimming with ideas and concepts, their execution is flawed and often thoughtless. The writers retread familiar ground with an eccentric villain (played by a respected actor) who has a take-over-the-world complex that involves chemically affecting a mass global audience. Unfortunately, drug-lord Poppy fails to resonate as strongly as Samuel L. Jackson's Valentine, largely because she is given less focus and has to compete for screen time against other narrative strands that the film squeezes into its overstretched run-time.
Vaughn has claimed that his original cut of the film was an eye-watering 3 hours and 40 minutes which suggests that a significant portion of The Golden Circle's plot was left on the cutting room floor in an already overstuffed story. Eggsy's relationship with Swedish Princess Tilde whom he had, ahem, relations with at the end of the first entry in the franchise proves an unwelcome distraction from the more key story beats that deserve more exposure. The scenes that have been omitted are at times achingly obvious as certain arcs are clumsily constructed and are ultimately lacking in effectiveness whilst the film overall is missing a sense of acceptable taste with its attitude to sexual content. A scene where Eggsy must insert a tracking device into a female target's...well, you'll have to watch the film if you want to know the ins and outs (perhaps a poor choice of words), is questionable to say the least and potentially insulting. Vaughn clearly loves to infuse the shock factor into his work but here he has arguably stepped into distasteful territory.
With a stellar foundation to work from and expand upon, Kingsman: The Golden Circle sadly fails to achieve the spectacular quality of the franchise's first instalment and puts to rest the misleading comparative correlative - bigger doesn't always mean better.
EB
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