Kingsman: The Golden
Circle marks the third collaboration between director Matthew Vaughn and
comic book writer Mark Millar. The previous two, Kick-Ass and Kingsman: The
Secret Service, were both ultraviolent action pieces that served as a
simultaneous love letter/manic satire of the superhero and spy genre
respectively, with a heavy dose of cynicism and misanthropy coated in pitch-black
comedy. To give you a quick recap of the first Kingsman: Eggsy (Taron Egerton), a lower-class kid, is recruited by
a secret spy organization who model themselves after the Knights of the Round
Table and whose gadgets are all based on the attire of your typical British
gentleman, just as they’re threatened by an insane environmentalist tech
billionaire whose goal was to install chips in everyone’s brain that force them
to kill each other so he can curb the Earth’s population and stop global
warming. While the inventiveness and a few fantastic fight scenes (including
the single greatest use of “Free Bird” in any movie ever) is what made it such
a surprise hit, the story itself is your typical hero’s journey, with Eggsy’s
arc being about his transition from a common bloke to a refined gentleman. With
that chapter closed, the sequel is left with few options for where else to go.
Our story sees the Kingsmen facing off against Poppy
(Julianne Moore), an eccentric drug lord whose sinister plot is to poison her
own product and withholding the antidote so she can extort the world’s leaders
into decriminalizing recreational drugs and receive credit as one of the
world’s great businesswomen. (The running theme of villains in this franchise
seems to be megalomaniacal moguls with surface-level good intentions and too
much money whose schemes in theory involve killing millions to save billions.)
With the help of a rejected Kingsmen recruit turned evil (Edward Holcroft), she
destroys their headquarters and kills most of the Kingsmen, with the only
survivors being Eggsy and tech wizard Merlin (Mark Strong). Their efforts to
rebuild and strike back lead them to the Statesmen, a sister organization based
in America who basically do the same thing as them except their gear is cowboy
themed and their agents are named after liquor: Agents Tequila (Channing
Tatum), Whiskey (Pedro Pascal), Ginger Ale (Halle Berry), and head honcho
Champagne (Jeff Bridges). Also joining their ranks is Eggsy’s old mentor Harry
Hart (Colin Firth), previously thought to be dead after being shot in the last
movie, but was revived by the Statesmen’s super science with amnesia as an
unfortunate side effect.
If you think that plot synopsis was too busy and bloated,
then you just figured out one of this movie’s major problems. There are a ton
of ideas being tossed around and the movie has a hard time keeping all those
plates spinning. The sequel is all about taking the things that worked about
the first one and doubling down on it. You liked the CGI enhanced long-take camera
work from the hate church massacre? Here, have two more. You liked how the
villain in the first was a parody of obnoxious American consumer culture? Have
another. You thought the ending of the first of a first person shot of the main
character performing a lewd sex act was way too gross and in poor taste? Boy,
you ain’t seen nothing yet. It suffers from the same problem as sequels like Men in Black II or The Hangover Part II, but this isn’t nearly as egregious as those
two in that degree.
It also lacks a sense of investment. Sure, Eggsy’s story in
the first Kingsman was basically My Fair Lady but with more exploding
heads, but it was a nice foundation to build the story around. Now that that
arc is all but complete, there’s little incentive for anyone to really care
about what’s going on. Plus, bringing Colin Firth back from the dead undermines
Eggsy’s character development and one of the major emotional beats from the
first film.
There are a few things about the film’s politics that might
turns people off. The this and the first Kingsman
take the antiquated model of the James Bond films, suave suits, outdated
misogyny, and affinity for over-the-top violence in tow, and want to poke fun
at it while wallowing in the same issues. It’s a perfect example of wanting to
have your cake and eat it too. The movie’s gender politics may leave a bad
taste in people’s mouths (but that kind of comes with the territory when you’re
adapting a Mark Millar story). One of the most interesting female characters in
the first film is unceremoniously killed off in the first 15 minutes, the
subplot of Eggsy trying to balance work with his relationship to his new
girlfriend, the Princess of Sweden (who ended the last movie by rewarding Eggsy
with anal sex after saving the world) is easily the weakest part of the movie, Halle
Berry’s character is woefully underwritten, and there is one particular scene of
seduction that makes the aforementioned anal scene look G-rated in comparison.
Despite all the negatives, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t
have fun with this thing. Matthew Vaughn as a director is terrible at certain
things, but spectacular with others. Namely his keen eye for casting and his
excellent skills in directing action sequences. The fight scenes are all
expertly coordinated, but will give viewers a case of déjà vu. Two of them use
the same pan-in-pan-out camera technique, and there’s another that’s a virtual
shot-for-shot remake of the bar brawl from the first movie, but the twist is
that someone has to tap out so one of the Statesmen can step in and show off
his electric lasso. Not wholly original, but still fun to watch.
Egerton, Strong and Firth slip back into their old roles as
if they never left, and the Statesmen have character, even if most of them are
underutilized. Tatum and Bridges are basically glorified cameos, with Pedro
Pascal being the main Statesman representative for nearly every mission. The
one who is clearly having the most fun, however, is Julianne Moore. Where
Samuel L. Jackson’s Valentine was millennial Bond villain version of Steve
Jobs, Moore’s Poppy is like if Martha Stewart was possessed by Tony Montana. Her
lair is built on a temple in the middle of the Cambodian jungle and is a
kitschy pastiche of the 50’s, with a diner, bowling alley, and a theater where
a kidnapped Elton John performs as her personal minstrel. (For the record,
Elton John is far and away the best part of the movie.)
Bottom line, Kingsman:
The Golden Circle was entertaining in parts, but didn’t have quite enough
to justify its existence. Fans of the original will probably have a blast with
this, but the story doesn’t do much to elevate things. Hopefully they’ll find a
better angle for the third installment.
6/10
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