History YMMV / KingsmanTheGoldenCircle

* MemeticMutation: The Statesmen always/excessively interjecting "Yeehaw" has become a fandom meme. Made perhaps even funnier by how this usage seems to have no real basis in canon, being simply the result of promotional material humorously playing up cowboy stereotypes.

* CriticalDissonance: The film sits with a "Rotten" 52% on Website/RottenTomatoes, and Metacritic reports that professional critics give it "average" reviews. Although fans cite it as a SophomoreSlump in the storytelling department compared to the original, it's still received rather warmly by audiences.

** By a celebrity playing AsHimself, no less! [[Music/EltonJohn Sir Elton John]] is having a blast in every scene he's in, [[spoiler: and he even takes part in a climactic fight and defeats several mooks by himself!]]

* {{Squick}}: Poppy had a guy shove his best friend into a meat grinder, then made him eat a burger made out of the guy's minced flesh.

* CompleteMonster: [[TheAggressiveDrugDealer Poppy Adams]] is the head of the Golden Circle, the biggest drug empire in the world. When an employee named Charles brings his friend Angel to her as a new hire, she punishes Charles by [[IfYoureSoEvilEatThisKitten forcing Angel]] to put him into a meat grinder and then [[ImAHumanitarian forces Angel to eat a burger made of Charles's meat]]. After discovering all the Kingsman locations, she has them all blown up and kills all of the Kingsmen except Gary "Eggsy" Unwin and Merlin. She takes singer Music/EltonJohn hostage as a pet and as personal entertainment with a shock collar. When Angel uses one of her products, Poppy has her robot dogs attack and tear him apart. The [[PoisonAndCureGambit crux of her plan]] to legalize the drug industry so she can make even more money is to have the millions who she sold to infected with a deadly virus through her products that lasts three stages before death.

** Charlie goes over by [[spoiler:annihilating the Kingsmen for the humiliation he had received from the end of the second act onward. Among the casualties are Roxy, the new Arthur]], and a couple of collateral victims who had nothing whatsoever to do with Charlie's humiliation.

** Harry's return. People are up in arms about his appearance in the film. Either it's great having him back to fight alongside Eggsy, or his revival [[DeathIsCheap cheapened]] his sudden and tragic demise. Some preferred that Harry stayed dead and made appearances in flashbacks or something similar, or have the resurrection pushed back to a potential third film where the fallout from his death would've resonated enough. Others believe that Harry's revival was an AssPull and meant that his death at Valentin's hands was all for nothing.

** Poppy Adams instantly crossed it when she forces one of new recruits to throw his best friend into a meat grinder, and has him [[ImAHumanitarian eat a burger made out of said best friend's remains]] simply out of a test of loyalty. The implication being that she does this to ''all'' recruits.

* SoOkayItsAverage: The general consensus of the film is that it falls just short of the original in terms of originality, humor, and action and even shorter in regards to CharacterDevelopment and the general plot.

** Whiskey constantly vetoing Ginger from becoming a field agent. Is it simply because he's a PoliticallyIncorrectHero who believes that women are not suited for field missions, or [[spoiler:is it out of fear for her safety, given the death of his own wife and unborn child? The revelation of his FaceHeelTurn muddies this even further. With the aspect of his FE, Whiskey seems more cagey about it than he does actually sexist.]]

** Whiskey constantly vetoing Ginger from becoming a field agent. Is it simply because he's a PoliticallyIncorrectHero who believes that women are not suited for field missions, or [[spoiler:is it out of fear for her safety, given the death of his own wife and unborn child? The revelation of his FaceHeelTurn muddies this even further.]]

* UnintentionallySympathetic: Unlike the traitorous Charlie, the unapologetically evil Poppy and the ignorantly corrupt President, [[spoiler: Whiskey is given a sympathetic and relatable backstory as a FreudianExcuse for his villainy, and he just so happens to be a walking SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome. Yet he's given the most brutal fate of the four aforementioned characters, as if he was meant to be a HateSink for the audience rather than the [[EnsembleDarkhorse exact opposite]]]]. Though it's also possible his death was supposed to fall under RuleOfCool, since he is the FinalBoss and everything. Though the case becomes even worse if you believe the AlternativeCharacterInterpretation that [[spoiler: he hadn't yet recovered from his headshot and that his actions are as a result of this,]] a realistic possibility that's dismissed only because he says so. In which case [[spoiler: our heroes kill a man who wasn't in control of his actions.]]

** Charlie's execution at Eggsy's hands though is immensely satisfying. Eggsy first handily beats Charlie—whose robotic arm is out of commission—with one arm behind his back and then pins him down, while telling him he's truly the better man. Eggsy then lists off all the people close to him who died because of Charlie and then summarily snaps his neck.

* CatharsisFactor: While her fate's nowhere near as brutal as Whiskey's—[[DisproportionateRetribution and that was maybe too much for him anyway]], Poppy getting killed of an overdose by her own product is still a fitting way for her to go out.

* WhatAnIdiot: See [[WhatAnIdiot/KingsmanTheGoldenCircle the page]].

* CatharsisFactor: While her fate's nowhere near as brutal as Whiskey's, Poppy getting killed of an overdose by her own product is still a fitting way for her to go out.

* CatharsisFactor: While her fate's nowhere near as brutal as Whiskey's, Poppy getting killed of an overdose by her own product is still a fitting way for her to go out.

* IdiotPlot: The movie's plot simply seems to rely on having Eggsy making uncharacteristically stupid decisions drive it forward, making him come off as an incompetent Kingsman whose actions end up causing more harm than good. Druglord (lady?) Poppy isn't much better, as her plan somehow include killing off her own consumers. Even the U.S. President calls her stupid.

* CompleteMonster: [[TheAggressiveDrugDealer Poppy Adams]] is the head of the Golden Circle, the biggest drug empire in the world. When an employee named Charles brings his friend Angel to her as a new hire, she [[BadBoss punishes Charles]] by [[IfYoureSoEvilEatThisKitten forcing Angel]] to put him into a meat grinder and then [[ImAHumanitarian forces Angel to eat a burger made of Charles's meat]]. After discovering all the Kingsman locations, she has them all blown up and kills all of the Kingsmen except Gary "Eggsy" Unwin and Merlin. She takes singer Music/EltonJohn hostage as a pet and as personal entertainment with a shock collar. When Angel uses one of her products, Poppy has her robot dogs attack and tear him apart. The [[PoisonAndCureGambit crux of her plan]] to legalize the drug industry so she can make even more money is to have the millions who she sold to infected with a deadly virus through her products that lasts three stages before death.

* UnintentionallySympathetic: Unlike the traitorous Charlie, the unapologetically evil Poppy and the ignorantly corrupt President, [[spoiler: Whiskey is given a sympathetic and relatable backstory as a FreudianExcuse for his villainy, and he just so happens to be a walking SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome. Yet he's given the most brutal fate of the four aforementioned characters, as if he was meant to be a HateSink for the audience rather than the [[EnsembleDarkhorse exact opposite]]]]. Though it's also possible his death was supposed to fall under RuleOfCool, since he is the FinalBoss and everything. Though the case becomes even worse if you believe the AlternativeCharacterIjterpretation that [[spoiler: he hadn't yet recovered from his headshot and that his actions are as a result of this,]] a realistic possibility that's dismissed only because he says so. In which case [[spoiler: our heroes kill a man who wasn't in control of his actions.]]

* UnintentionallySympathetic: Unlike the traitorous Charlie, the unapologetically evil Poppy and the ignorantly corrupt President, [[spoiler: Whiskey is given a sympathetic and relatable backstory as a FreudianExcuse for his villainy, and he just so happens to be a walking SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome. Yet he's given the most brutal fate of the four aforementioned characters, as if he was meant to be a HateSink for the audience rather than the [[EnsembleDarkhorse exact opposite]]]]. Though it's also possible his death was supposed to fall under RuleOfCool, since he is the FinalBoss and everything.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: Eggsy's friend who is watching his dog sneaks into Eggsy's study while he's having dinner with Tilde's parents; when he puts on the glasses he and Eggsy connect, allowing Eggsy to see him playing with his gadgets and he begins to curse at him, while Tilde's parents think he's talking to them. Any drama or tension from Eggsy's outburst at the parents is never followed up on, while the plot thread of his friend finding his gadgets gets cut short thirty seconds later when [[spoiler:Eggsy's apartment is blown up.]]
* BrokenBase:

* HarsherInHindsight:
** The film features a handful of scenes that Creator/ColinFirth himself pointed out to be parallels to/gags about his own experiences with his then-wife, the Italian director Livia Giuggoli (e.g. Eggsy learning a different language to impress his Swedish girlfriend's parents, or Firth's character Harry Hart speaking subpar Italian). However, it can be difficult to watch those now knowing that Firth and Giuggoli would divorce in 2019.

** In this movie, Sir Elton John attends a wedding between a royal and a commoner from different countries. About eight months later, he'll attend the wedding, that can be described similarly, between [[https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop/8456816/elton-john-serenades-royal-wedding-prince-harry-meghan-markle-marriage-reception Prince Harry and Meghan Markle]].

** Poppy having millions of her drug users infected with a deadly virus hits a lot differently now given COVID-19.

** With the huge amounts of LampshadeHanging and often RealityEnsues moments in the last film, you'd expect the sequel to have ''some'' acknowledgement of how the world is recovering from Valentine's HatePlague, maybe even tie it into the plot in some way? Well, the best we get is Poppy kidnapping Elton John in the confusion. We don't even get to see the Statesmen's full reaction to the V-Chip incident besides a small response to the church scene. Did they get affected and nearly kill each other, or find some way to avoid getting affected? We'll never know, at least in this movie.

* {{Narm}}:
** In the first film, the pub fight scene was instigated by friends of Eggsy's abusive father looking to seek revenge for Eggsy wrecking their car. In ''The Golden Circle'', the bar fight scene is instigated by a bunch of nameless random cowboys who suddenly decided they don't like British people who earlier didn't have any gripe with the group. While it serves to show how much damage Harry's cognitive abilities have taken, it feels so incredibly forced, especially when compared to its predecessor and its CatharsisFactor.
** Eggsy cutting his way out of his trunk in the opening car chase would be badass, except that he does it with his shoe knife, and the blade somehow comes straight out of the seat. It's hard to imagine what sort of position he has to be in for that, especially in so small a space.

* ToughActToFollow: Coming off of the highly successful and popular first film, ''The Golden Circle'' was definitely going to be measured with high expectations, and fell short of them.