Kingsman: The
Golden Circle
After the success of Kingsman: The Secret Service in 2014,
it was no surprise that a sequel would soon follow. Director Matthew Vaughn returns for Kingsman:
The Golden Circle, as do stars Taron Egerton, Mark Strong and Colin Firth, reprising
their roles from the previous film.
With Kingsman all but destroyed, Eggsy (Egerton) and Merlin
(Strong) must journey stateside to seek the help of their American cousins,
Statesman, in order to take down sadistic drug lord Poppy (Julianne Moore), who
is holding the world ransom.
I was certainly entertained by Kingsman: The Golden Circle. Action heavy and funny, it continued where
its predecessor left off in parodying the Roger Moore era of the James Bond
film franchise. There are a number of call-backs and references to the first
film that provide nice continuity. However, it does fall victim to sequelitis, a
trap many sequels fall into where filmmakers believe the only logical next step
is to go bigger and louder with more explosions, with the majority of big
action set pieces in this film certainly fitting this description. The first film’s well edited, cleverly
choreographed, fast paced fight scenes return in droves for The Golden Circle and are for the most part exciting, although it does feel similar to the final
level of a videogame by the end, with the hero taking on waves of enemies
before finally reaching the big boss fight.
The Secret Service did a really good job at developing its
characters, particularly Eggsy. We
empathised with him as we learned about his personality, motivations and family
life. We saw him shift from goalless
chav to gentleman spy over the course of two hours. However, in The Golden Circle, there is no
such character arc; he is as he was at the end of the last film. While I
certainly didn’t want him to regress in any way, other than the fact he has a
new enemy to take on, there is no new skill or lesson he has to learn. There is another character though that needed
more character development than they received.
If this character had been written better and developed more, it would
have made a particular scene a lot better. As it is, with only a line or two of
expositional dialogue, what happens with him just comes out of the blue.
Despite being a comedy, I didn’t find myself laughing out
loud all too often during the film. That’s
not to say that I didn’t find it funny, because as I’ve already mentioned I did,
but rather I didn’t find it funny enough to do anything more than chuckle most
of the time. There is a recurring cameo
role from a celebrity (whose identity I won’t spoil for you in case you have
not yet seen it) that is played for laughs, but eventually he overstays his
welcome and becomes tedious at times.
Also, look out for some clear, amusing satire with the President of the
United States.
Composer Henry Jackman returns for his fourth collaboration
with director Matthew Vaughn and creates a fitting score. His return to score the film not only
helps accompany the action and emotions on screen but also provides continuity
between films with leitmotifs.
Kingsman: The Golden Circle is a fun, action packed sequel
that doesn’t quite live up to its predecessor.
Its likeable characters and creative set pieces make this sequel
enjoyable enough, though it is hindered by some underdeveloped newcomers and a somewhat
predictable plot.
