Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017)

Kingsman: The Golden Circle

Dir: Matthew Vaughn

 

 (Spoilers…sort of)

The initial Kingsman: The Secret Service took the world by storm with its witty, joyful and unapologetic panache. With Matthew Vaughn at the helm, the director behind such successes like Kick-Ass and X-Men: First Class, his anarchic sensibility breathed fresh air into the overdone spy thriller genre. So with Vaughn returning the franchise three years after Kingsman’s release, Kingsman: The Golden Circle had high expectations. It is such a shame to say that it really does not live up to the hype. Given how exciting the first Kingsman was, its sequel fails to deliver on nearly all fronts. Vaughn once said in an interview with Empire that he is not a fan of sequels as the audience expectation is so difficult to appease. In the fact that they want what they enjoyed from the first film while also bringing different things to the table. And given how this Kingsman sequel lethargically rumbles on, we (the audience) wish Vaughn had taken his own advice, and had left this franchise well alone like he had done with his other features.

We return to London with Eggsy (Taron Egerton), agent of the secret intelligence agency: Kingsman, balancing his life-threatening job and personal relationship with Princess Tilde (Hanna Alstrom), introduced at the rear end of the first feature. Beginning with an exhilarating car chase in central London, the film never recreates that energy from there. Kingsman simply bites off more than it can chew. It tries to bring a level of Game of Thrones uncertainty with the character’s lives by killing off particular characters. And by the same token, the film rushes to introduce so many more other characters instead of exploring the already established characters. And the main gripe with the entire film is the fact Vaughn brought Colin Firth back, as it has a two pronged effect on the credibility of the Kingsman franchise. Firstly it shatters any sense of threat the first film achieved in abundance and any deaths there on out simply holds no narrative or emotional weight as they can presumably be brought back to life with this, Conflict Desert Storm MediKit type, gel. Secondly it shows a cowardice that instead of introducing a handful of new characters and sticking with the pre-existing cast from the original film, they chose to demolish the integrity of the first film.

Anyhow, with the run time of two hours and twenty minutes, we are introduced to a new set of characters part of the United States secret intelligence agency known as the Statesman. This band of cohorts include the hilariously odd Jeff Bridges as Champ, the brilliant Channing Tatum code-named Tequila and Halle Berry as techno-wiz Ginger. And while all this is occurring we are also given a wealth of time to Julianne Moore as the psychotic antagonist Poppy who hopes to expand her already lucrative drug empire. The fact Moore is exceedingly boring throughout Kingsman, given how brilliant she has been in her career, should provide some insight into the ponderous experience that is the Golden Circle.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle is a lethargic, bloated mess of a spy sequel. The original will always hold a special place in my heart but this brings no justice to the franchise in any way. The ending of the first film hosted a rather questionable sexually graphic sequence, but many did see it as parodying its very genre. That being said, the sexually questionable sequence in Golden Circle is incredibly out of place and excruciating to watch. Fool on me for having high expectations for this sequel but it unfortunately pales in comparison to its predecessor. Any film that gives more screen time to Elton John rather than Channing Tatum will always be doomed to fail.