maninahat
Since: Apr, 2009
03/01/2022 00:00:00
I just finished rewatching this, and it feels a lot like watching Men in Black II. Some producer clearly wanted a sequel to copy all the successful parts of the first movie, no matter how superficial the element or how unimaginative it makes the sequel. Some points of similarity to MIB 2:
- They insisted old mentor figure return no matter what, even having clearly and permanently resolved his character arc was from the previous movie.
- The film unceremoniously kicks out its only promising action female lead from the previous movie, again to make room for Harry.
- The sequel's increased budget ironically leads to a cheaper looking movie, as it overly relies on on costly yet unconvincing CGI.
- Trashy, lurid fan service inexplicably dialled up between sequels.
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Thrilling action but misses the mark of the original
Kingsman: The Golden Circle in many ways reflects the worst qualities of the "Saved for the Sequel" trope. At times, it feels like a poorly constituted patchwork collage of mismatched elements that were left on the cutting room floor from the original. On the plus side, Matthew Vaughn is on peak performance with stellar action choreography all round. It's a shame that there's little connective tissue between it all.
Golden Circle follows Eggsy (Taron Egerton), riding high in the Kingsman spy agency and now in a relationship with the fine-bottomed Swedish princess he hastily romanced at the end of the first movie. The movie sets the tone with a highly stylish battle against rejected blueblood agent Charlie (also from the first movie, now with a cyborg arm) in a modified London cab which is almost surreal in its smoothness. Then everyone from the first movie dies. Everyone except Eggsy's reliable tech guy Merlin (Mark Strong). Out of options, they head to the USA to join forces with the alcohol-denominated American equivalent of the Kingsmen, the Statesmen, in order to fight against the titular multinational drug cartel ran by an eccentric 1950s Americana-themed villainess, Poppy Adams (Julianne Moore). She doesn't have a scratch on Sam L. Jackson's lispy-voiced eco mogul Valentine, but for some reason inherits his fondness for kidnapping celebrities...
The rest is a total blur to remember, to be quite honest. There's robot dogs, a hamfisted anti-drug message, they unbelievably contrive the return of Colin Firth as Eggsy's mentor Harry in what could be the actor's most visibly bored performance yet, Eggsy graphically fingers a girl at Glastonbury, there's some cliche ski resort stuff, the evil POTUS is endorsing Poppy's weird drug conspiracy... and Elton John hogging a troubling amount of screenspace. The whole premise of the Statesmen is barely utilised, with Channing Tatum's character being a blatant Advertised Extra, probably having three minutes of screentime max, yet at the end he leaves to join Kingsman like the film had been building up to it all along? What?
To expand on Harry Hart's return, since you may remember him casually getting shot in the face in the previous film, yeah, he's back thanks to some magic gel that can apparently heal any injury. Including death. While Comic Book Death is a recurring problem in that medium, this kind of blase defilement of sacred Character Death is practically unheard of in cinema — shattering suspension of disbelief doesn't even begin to describe it. The return of Harry does lead to some expansion of his relationship to Eggsy but I can't help but feel it's unnecessary, especially since the previous film was all about their bond (ha). If they had to kill off all of the other old characters, at least give some time to develop the new ones.
A lot of these plot points, even Elton John's inclusion, were apparently on the cards for the previous film, so The Golden Circle is essentially just spare parts. This review may seem fairly scathing, but honestly, the film is enjoyable if you completely switch off your brain. The action is truly phenomenal, with the final battle being even more standout compared to Eggsy vs. Gazelle in The Secret Service. But in contrast to the last film's clever satire of spy movie tropes, the superficiality of the sequel may be disappointing.