Kingsman: The Golden Circle

Director: Matthew Vaughn

Cast: Tagon Egerton, Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Halle Berry, Channing Tatum, Mark Strong, Jeff Bridges

Genre: Action, comedy

Year: 2017

A sequel to the successful spy satire 'Kingsman: The Secret Service', 'Kingsman: The Golden Circle' tries to deliver an equally unique film, and partly does so, but doesn't always know what it wants to be. 

The film follows on from the first film depicting Eggsy (Tagon Egerton) continuing his job from within the Kingsman. However, the entirety of Kingsman is destroyed by Julianne Moore's sadistic villain known as Poppy. The only two members of Kingsman left standing are Eggsy and Merlin (Mark Strong) who join up with Kingsman's American partner Statesman, which boasts Halle Berry, Jeff Bridges, Channing Tatum and Pedro Pascal as its team. Additionally, to Eggsy and Merlin's astonishment, they have an amnesiac Harry Hart (Colin Firth) who had supposedly died in the first film. Together, they work against Poppy's plan to poison everybody across the world to death.

This film maintains its wit from the original, with many laughs throughout and never really feels dry with humour at any point. The writing is exceptional, showing that Matthew Vaughn still knows how to write a funny and enjoyable film for audiences. Similarly, the action for the most part is thrilling and keeps the exhilaration high. It does mimic the single continuous shot from 'Secret Service' which may seem like it is trying to recycle something which was highly praised in the original. It is not shy to show bloody violence like the first one which makes it somewhat fun to watch for its target audience of 16-24 year olds.
The plot is unique and is enjoyable for the most part. The film tries to keep the audience invested in Eggsy's plot line the most, naturally; however, sometimes it doesn't always keep the viewers totally emotionally invested, especially with his relationship with Princess Tilde (his girlfriend). There is an amusing section from the start of the film, but other than that, she becomes almost forgettable. Another area that this film falls at is that it kills off a large majority of the cast very early on. Michael Gambon, who is obviously a well known British actor, takes over the role as leader of Kingsman from Michael Caine; however, he gets very limited screen time which is saddening that they almost waste this talent. Still, Eggsy and Merlin still provide good performances, and the film does surprisingly become quite emotional concerning the relationship between Eggsy, Merlin and Harry. This definitely feels more authentic than Eggsy's relationship with Tilde.

Unfortunately, another place that the film fails probably the most is concerning the antagonists. In the original, Samuel L. Jackson got plenty of screen time and the script gave him a lot of character development, depicting his savage nature, yet has an ironic distaste for blood. Julianne Moore does her best to make the most out of the time she is provided with in the film (which is unfortunately minimal). She is a force to reckoned with, yet has very little character development. She has a group of minions, defined by having a golden circle burnt into their skin, as well as having two viciously relentless robot dogs to do her bidding. Added to that, she has Elton John as her prisoner. This is where the film becomes too spoof like. The original was spoofing the spy genre, but in a sophisticated way, like how 'Dr. Strangelove' satirises the Cold War. However, the inclusion of such a famous star who performs some preposterous things makes the film feel like a rather silly film and removes the sense of authenticity. John makes the film feel somewhat childish in comparison to the first and makes the third act feel stupid. He is good at times, but other times, he becomes an annoyance. This shows how the film is stuck between trying to be a comedy, action and spoof film and doesn't really know which one to be the most.

Ultimately, this is a decent sequel. It doesn't beat the original at all, but it does feel somewhat fresh for the most part. It has some flaws which might be more annoying to some than others. Yet, it does try to maintain the wit and action of the first film as well as forming some sort of emotion.

Verdict: 6/10