‘Kingsman: The Golden Circle’ Review

The first Kingsman came as a complete surprise. It offered an original spin on the spy genre. It openly parodied previous spy movies, especially James Bond, but it also offered its own unique world and adventure. So does the second film live up to the fun of the first movie? Not exactly. But it still is a fun experience no less.

Plot

The Kingsman are continuing on with their lives after saving the world in their previous adventure. After a new threat looms its ugly head, the Kingsman must join up with their American cousins, the Statesman. Together, the two organizations attempt to bring down an enemy who has the potential to endanger the world.

Characters

The returning characters from the first film are great once again. I really like Taron Egerton as Eggsy in this movie. He still has his rebellious side, but he does turn into a gentleman when he really needs to. He has a lot of charisma and he is a very likable character. I also really liked Mark Strong as Merlin. 

He and Egerton have a lot of great moments in this movie. Colin Firth was also good again, however, I wasn’t a huge fan of what they did with his character. It took a little bit too much time to develop his situation and it sometimes drew me out of the main story of the film.

What I was most excited about in this movie was the introduction of the Statesman, the American counterparts of the Kingsman. I thought they were really cool. If the Kingsman are spies that represent English stereotypes, then the Statesman are that but for America. They have strong southern accents, they use weapons like whips and lassos, and their headquarters are located in a whiskey production factory.

However, I think some of the members of the Statesman are a bit underutilized. Channing Tatum and Jeff Bridges are members of the Statesman, but they both don’t have enough screen time. It was disappointing because I liked both of their characters. Halle Berry is another Statesman and I thought she was pretty good. She is basically the American version of Strong’s character and they both play off one another pretty well.

The Statesman who gets the most screen time is definitely Pedro Pascal. He was great. He did a really great job at being a spy who is also an American cowboy. I really liked how he and Egerton had different ways of approaching situations due to the different personalities that they had.

Julianne Moore plays the villain and I thought she was fine. She is a bit over the top and she tries a little bit too hard to be threatening. Also, her plan in this movie is kind of dumb. What she wants isn’t actually that evil, but the way she tries to get what she wants is very evil. I feel like she could’ve taken a much less evil route to get what she wanted, but we need a movie. It just seemed a bit unnecessary.

Direction

Matthew Vaughn is back to direct this movie and I think he did a good job at directing this movie. I really like the way he shoots the action sequences. He doesn’t use a lot of shaky cam and he always focuses on one thing during a sequence and shows what is happening in the background. 

It makes it a bit easier to see exactly what is happening. The action has a lot of energy and everything moves very quickly. I also really liked how he used the soundtrack to improvise the action scenes. They are good songs and they fit well with what is going on.

While I did like the action, I think this movie is over the top to a fault. I think Vaughn took everything that people liked in the first movie and used a little bit too much of it. There is way too much CGI in this movie. Eventually, the action just looks like a video game. There are a lot of stunts that are so obviously fake because they are just impossible.

The acting is also over the top. There are a couple of scenes involving a fictional President of the United States and these scenes took me completely out of the movie. The President is way over the top and his humor just did not work. 

These scenes just felt like they didn’t belong in this movie. Sometimes the humor works, but sometimes it falls flat. There is a cameo in this movie that starts out funny, but then it is just overused to the point where it just starts to feel pointless.

I also felt that the film did drag a little in the middle. It is a bit too long. There is a lot in the middle that could have been cut out in order to focus more on the main story. The film starts and ends with a bang, but does get a little bit boring and drawn out in between.

Final Thoughts

Kingsman: The Golden Circle is a perfectly decent movie, but I was disappointed because I loved the first movie. I had high expectations for this movie, and unfortunately, this movie just didn’t land for me the same way the first one did. It’s not great, but it is enjoyable enough. 

It falls into a common trap for many sequels which is to go bigger and bolder than the first movie. Sometimes it works, while sometimes it just feels like too much. If they decide to make a third movie, I wouldn’t be against it, but I’m also ok if they decide to end the franchise here.

Rating: 3/5