Kingsman: The Golden Circle – Film Review

It is always hard to top a first entry when it becomes a wild sensation. To replicate its success or even top it is a huge challenge. What Matthew Vaughn delivered with this entry was more of a serviceable sequel that doesn’t step on it’s predecessor but builds upon it. There is a lot of great world building done in this entry to showcase the Statesmen and the characters involved in that organization which I truly enjoyed. Channing Tatum, Halle Berry, Jeff Bridges and Pedro Pascal are great additions to this franchise which I hope will be apart of the third entry.

Taron Egerton does a great job as Eggsy and brings his character forward in becoming a man after the first entry. Though he makes a lot of mistakes and has to learn from those consequences he does have a more active persona in comparison to the first entry. His chemistry with Colin Firth is strong. They work well off of each other in their scenes together as the Father-Son dynamic plays out. Colin Firth’s character, Harry Hart, was killed off in the first one and now he is back. The explanation of how he is alive again I was able to buy because of two reason. One was it didn’t seem as outlandish as compared to other things happening in the film and the usages of the revival wasn’t a one off that just served one purpose.

Manners… maketh… man. Let me translate that for you.

The issues I had with the film mainly came from the choices in letting go some characters in this entry that don’t help the franchise overall. Though it is good to have some bold choices and to have stakes in the film that make it seem anyone can die — not everyone has to. The film was a bit longer than it needed to be and could have a better focus on the villain. Though the film does have some repetition with similar beats it didn’t feel like a carbon copy to me. There was enough world building and interesting new things about this entry that kept it fresh.

The villain played by Julianne Moore was very eccentric and crazed. I enjoyed her performance and the character she brought forth. The topical messaging the film showcases about the war on drugs is interesting in comparison to the first films message about overpopulation counters to this entry. The cameo’s by Elton John were fun and the character Charlie was also a sub villain who had great fleshed out motivations that I appreciate how they tied in so well with the first film. I hope they can focus on a more contained third film with a clearer story that has less subplots but continues to build out the world the franchise started in the first film.

I overall recommend seeing this film in theaters for the crazy action sequences, funny moments, and overall joy the film gives you on the roller coaster that it is.

8/10