Speaking of killing what we love, Kingsman: The Golden Circle literally kills off the Kingsman and, in doing so, only brings back part of what we loved about the first, which is the sympathetic hero in Eggsy and gadget man Merlin. Now dead is this secret world of the Kingsman and our other favorite character, Roxy (Sophie Cookson). I wish there were another movie in between these two. Give the franchise a chance to breathe. I wanted to see more of this organization, but now it’s dead, gone, kaput, and ten minutes haven’t even passed.
Then the film asks us to reintroduce… again… to the idea of a secret organization in the Statesman. Here we get a quick overview of the American version. As much as I complain, I never grow tired of seeing Halle Berry in movies, and relatively new Pedro Pascal ain’t all that bad either. With that being said, it’s all redundant, doing the same thing again. It repeats and rehashes itself. You know it copies itself.
“…for a sequel to work, the second film needs to include everything we loved about the first…”
On the upside, we have the return of Harry (Colin Firth), whose life was saved by the Statesman. As much as I like the world of the Statesman and the new characters, we’ve seen this alternate secret organization in the first film. I’m left walking away with a “same but different” feeling from the final product. Unfortunately, it’s not like this problem can be fixed because it’s engrained in the final script, so we’re stuck.
Right off the bat, Kingsman: The Golden Circle is a lesser movie, but thankfully, its style and cool-a*s visuals are back. Poppy is exiled in a South American jungle. She’s a fan of evil robots, and unlike Valentine, she’s not put off by blood and gore. How can you not love her putting a disloyal henchman in a meat mincer and then feeding him to her new loyal henchman? There are also hungry robot dogs with sharp teeth and a penchant for drawing and quartering their prey. Plus, Sir Elton John plays a massive role as Poppy’s hapless drug-addict guinea pig and nightly entertainment.
I liked Kingsman: The Golden Circle but firmly believe it made crucial film franchise management mistakes. Thanks to a formidable villain in Poppy (we need more an evil Julianne Moore in other films), there’s still fun to be had. Also back is the over-the-top comic book gore and violence, but it failed to give me a reason to care about the Kingsman for future films. In fact, it gave me a reason to quit the franchise.
"…it's not like this problem can be fixed because it's engrained in the final script, so we're stuck."
