REVIEW: “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” is enjoyable, but lacks the freshness of the first

By Stephanie Chang,
BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–

[Warning: Contains spoilers]

High speed chases. Futuristic gadgets. Secret institutes. “The Kingsman” sequel continues to have it all, but the addition of new ideas are nowhere to be seen.

“Kingsman: The Golden Circle,” directed by Matthew Vaughn, is the action-adventure sequel to “Kingsman: The Secret Service,” and was released on Sep. 22.

The movie first takes place in London, where we follow Eggsy (Taron Egerton), who is now part of the Kingsman Secret Service, an international intelligence service disguised as a tailor shop.

From the first half of the movie, several Kingsman agents’ homes are targeted by missiles, courtesy of Miss Poppy, the villain who is head of the largest drug cartel in the world.

Many of the characters introduced in the first movie were killed off, and never appear again. This disposing of characters almost appears a cop-out on the part of Vaughn.

The crisis of the missiles lead the two remaining Kingsman members Eggsy and Merlin (Mark Strong) to head to Statesman, the American organization in Kentucky disguised as a distillery.

There, we find Harry (Colin Firth) alive. His coming back brings up another major flaw in the movie, as he is saved by Statesman technology, making all the deaths in the movie less significant, since it is possible for technology to revive them. This is not only overly simple and lame, but it also lowers the emotional connection with the characters.

Despite the seeming importance of the connection between Harry and Eggsy, there is really only one scene that shows the value of their relationship. Perhaps Harry should’ve stayed dead.

Despite problems with the plot, the fight scenes between the characters are shot with various angles, following the movement of each person, gadget and weapon. Thus, the fight scenes are enjoyable to watch, not only because of the extremely impressive gadgets and technology, but also the angles from which they were shot.

Additionally, the transition between scenes are incredible– for example, when the scene shifts from a bottle to the Kingsman headquarters logo.

The actors and actresses are to be commended as well. Although Miss Poppy was a typical villain, Julianne Moore captured the character’s essence. Moore did a good job depicting Miss Poppy’s psychopathic attitude, sending shivers up the audience’s back. Egerton and several other actors and actresses continued to be as humorous as the last movie, with puns and jokes throughout.

Yet, it has to be acknowledged that “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” did not live up to the hype. It is a flurry of action, which is exciting, but the oversimplified plot and lack of character development just did not work, leaving one to leave the theaters with disappointment.

The first movie of Kingsman provided a sense of freshness and new ideas, making it a favorite. The sequel, however, loses its sense of freshness. For now, we can only hope that the third movie will be better.