Harry Situation Reviews: Kingsman: The Golden Circle
Manners... maketh... man.
Kingsman: The Golden Circle is the sequel to the successful action spy movie, Kingsman: The Secret Service, and is directed again by Matthew Vaughn and stars Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Taron Egerton, Halle Berry, Julianne Moore, Pedro Pascal, Channing Tatum, and Jeff Bridges.
The film takes place a year after the events of the first film and Kingsman is still protecting the world from deadly threats. Unfortunately their time is cut short when a drug cartel called the Golden Circle, led by a mad woman named Poppy Adams (played by Julianne Moore), launches a deadly assault, wiping out all of Kingsman's operations. Only Eggsy (reprised by Taron Egerton) and Merlin (reprised by Colin Firth) are the sole survivors and must team up with their American cousins the Statesman to stop them.
I really loved the first movie. It was the most fun film I've seen in recent years. It pretty much was a homage of all the classic spy movies from the 1960s with their wacky gadgets and goofy action scenes. Does this sequel hold up to its predecessor? Let's find out.
First of all, really wanted to state that the addition of these new American cousins of the Kingsman was great. Seeing them kick butt was a ton of fun. Though some audiences will be disappointed when they find that Channing Tatum and Jeff Bridges aren't in the movie so often, but at least we got Oberyn Martell of Game of Thrones to entertain us. And Halle Berry was also a good addition too. Brrr... for some reason I got the sense that Hell froze over.
Having the original cast back was also fun. I think the best performance came from Colin Firth as Harry Hart. For those wondering how he is still alive after the first film (brief spoiler to those who haven't seen it) there's a moment where they explain it and you just gotta role with it. In a way it's kinda like how they brought back Agent K in Men in Black 2. More on that in a bit.
But I believe there was one additional cast member that was truly the highlight of this film. The reason I state that is because it looked like he was having the most fun out of it. I won't spoil who that is, you just gotta see for yourself.
The action sequences are just as high octane and fun as they were in the first film. In fact, I dare say they upped it a bit than the first, however, that could also be regarded as a negative against the film. By that I mean there's too much emphasis in this sequel. Here's what I mean: do you remember from the first film how kickass that church scene was where Colin Firth just annihilates those Westboro Baptist Church look alikes (even though we were wishing that happened to the real Westboro Baptist Church members)? All those cool camera shots that rotated around 360 degrees so you can get every bloody shot? Well because you loved that so much in the first film they had to do it again 3 or 4 times in this one. That's the big problem with sequels. If something was pretty cool in the first one it's gonna lose its mojo in the sequels if we had to see the same thing happen again.
Also I hate to even say this, but there were a few moments that felt too cartoony to me. The basics of the first film was that it was a callback to some of the original spy movies, and that's what made the predecessor unique as a spy movie. This one because they had so many ridiculous gadgets, awesome action, and cartoonish moments made it feel more like a comic book movie than a spy movie, which shouldn't be too much of a shock since these films are based on a comic book.
In a way The Golden Circle is much like Men in Black 2. It's still fun to watch but definitely not as good as the first. Still it's worth a watch. I mean what else are you going to see? Flatliners?
Positives:
-Performances
-New additions
-High octane action
-Still fun
Negatives:
-Too much emphasis
-Too cartoony at times
Final Grade: C+
For those wondering why the Grading Scale is set up like this, well since Prose has been having bugs with their new update, it's been taking a while to fix them. So in the meantime, until they fix all the issues, you'll likely see the Grading Scale set up like this from now on. Thanks a lot, Prose! >:(
So there's my review of Kingsman: The Golden Circle. Have you seen it? What were your thoughts? Did you see the first Kingsman? Please be kind, leave a like and comment, and check back for more reviews here on Prose!
Best Quote:
Old Man: "That's the first solid shit I had in 3 weeks!"