Kingsman: The Golden Circle- Movie Review

Kingsman: The Secret Service shocked audiences in February 2015, being a surprisingly fun take on the tired spy genre. Superstar director Matthew Vaughn turned this comic adaptation into one of the most fun movies in recent years, and is back in the director's chair for this year's follow up, Kingsman: The Golden Circle. If you read my top nine most anticipated movies for this fall, you'll know that I was very excited for this film. While I was unfortunately slightly disappointed with it, it was still a super fun time from start to finish.

In this follow up, a ruthless drug lord named Poppy has put a poison in all her drugs, set to put hundreds of millions of lives in danger. In order to make sure they don't interfere, she sends missiles to the homes and bases of the Kingsman, forcing the few survivors to team up with their American counterparts, the Statesman. The remaining Kingman and the Statesman then work together, trying to take out Poppy and save the world... again.

Taron Egerton reprises his role as Eggsy, who is now a full Kingsman member. Just like in the first film, Egerton is fantastic. His comedic timing is brilliant and his cheeky wit compliments the more dapper parts of him very well. Mark Strong's character Merlin has a much bigger role this time around as he is one of the few survivors, and he deserved that extra screen time because both him and his character are phenomenal. When things go south, he is there to make sure Eggsy stays strong and also has a lot of strong moments of his own. The introduction of the Statesman brought a lot of great new characters, whether it's Channing Tatum's Agent Tequila, of Jeff Bridges' Agent Champagne. In my opinion though, no newcomer was as much of a standout as Pedro Pascal as Whiskey. I found his character to be the most entertaining as his southern swagger was greatly complimented by his extremely fun to watch ass kicking. He hit his comedic notes brilliantly and managed to be the standout in scenes featuring some truly fantastic actors. Now for the villain Poppy, played by the amazing Julianne Moore. I really didn't like this character at all, not in the way you're supposed to dislike villains though. I understand why a more over the top villain would be a smart idea after how crazy the first film's was, but Poppy doesn't fit the feel of this film at all. Moore's over the top performance and Poppy's insane lair feel cartoonish to the point where it took me out of the movie a little bit. She also has Elton John kidnapped to perform whenever she wants which also doesn't fit the feel of the movie, but that makes for some funny moments so I was okay with his role.

As much as I love the cast, the reason I was so excited for this movie was Matthew Vaughn, and his brilliant style as a director. I loved pretty much every action scene in this film, except for one. The opening scene follows a fight between Eggsy and a rejected Kingsman member from the first film. The scene is cut together very messily and throws you right into the action without any time to build anything. Luckily Vaughn got his shit together and all the other scenes feel just like the action of the first film. This movie also hit the comedic notes it needed to, as the humour stays consistent with what we expected from its predecessor. While the script is decent I have issues with it. As I said before, Poppy doesn't belong in this world, she is just too weird and over the top, and doesn't actually have any connection to Kingsman until near the end. There are also things that happen for unexplained reasons. For example a character gets shot because someone claims he's working against them, but it is never explained how they knew that. There are several plot holes like that spread throughout.

While the introduction of the Statesman brought us great new characters, it also brought in even better new gadgets. Much like the Kingsman gadgets, a lot of their things are made to look like everyday items. There are baseball bat minesweepers, baseball grenades, and some killer (quite literally) lassos and whips. The introduction of the Statesman was a great way to build upon the first film, and I'm really glad they're now part of this universe.

So overall, I think this film is a worthy successor to the first Kingsman film. While the opening scene is to be honest pretty bad, and the script is riddled with flaws, there is enough of the magic from the first film to make this a fun movie going experience. The characters and acting for the most part are great, and Vaughn's hilarious style of action fits this world beautifully. So while not anything special, Kingsman: The Golden Circle is a solid film that I'd suggest you go see.

Rating: 3.75/5

Written by Matt McKenzie