Yeah the entire movies plot is a not so subtle jab on the War on Drugs (although whether the film comes down for or against it gets, muddled by the end).
Also President Evil Pike is clearly a hodgepodge of Trump, George W. Bush, Raegan, and a little bit of Nixon thrown in for good measure.
I think its more about the extent to which it is political and not being political vs. un-political.
There's a difference between having a critical (if fantastic) commentary on the war on drugs and having that critical commentary with it pointedly directed at a very specific president or other figure. Arguably, it also dates the film.
I thought the drug message was fine. People experiment or have tried new things or are otherwise upstanding individuals and stereotyping all drug users as wastes of society isn't helpful to any dialogue or true examination over the issue.
The last movie had Obama (and please Mr. Vaughn, don't try to claim that it wasn't Obama because everyone who saw the movie could tell that it was) and his chief allies join forces with a genocidal maniac, and then get their heads blown off.
Is a Trump joke really "going too far" after that?
One thing's for sure, America's got some bad luck electing two Presidents Evil in a row.
You fell victim to one of the classic blunders!Well, the new one is not Trump either.
The only good fanboy, is a redeemed fanboy.Via a contrived Ass Pull, Roxy will somehow return for the third film.
edited 29th Sep '17 2:59:44 PM by Spinosegnosaurus77
Peace is the only battle worth waging.Turns out there's another Kingsman off-shoot (Scotsman? ) that saved her life except now she has amnesia too.
You fell victim to one of the classic blunders!A Winter Soldier light parody could be nice too
Cyborg Roxy is a suit would make for a fairly awesome Dragon to the next Big Bad.
A I Know You're In There speech fueled by Eggsy and Roxy's bro-ness would also make me super happy.
"But if that happened, Melia might actually be happy. We can't have that." - Handsome RobOh no, anything but that.
The only good fanboy, is a redeemed fanboy.They just did cyborg The Dragon with...whatshisface. Charlie?
You fell victim to one of the classic blunders!If nobody falls under some evil brainwashing/mind control at some point, I'm gonna be highly annoyed. Vaughn, that's not your cue to ignore the one cliche trope I really wanna see.
I have no idea why, but I somehow forgot that was a thing.
I have no idea why that was, since I only saw the film a week ago.
Maybe because I then re-watched the first one again.
Still stand by the idea of Evil! Roxy in a suit as something that should happen.
"But if that happened, Melia might actually be happy. We can't have that." - Handsome RobWatched this tonight, it was good but ultimately not as good as the first one, there were a lot of things I liked like Tilde becoming her own character, Julienne Moore who is excellent as Poppy and pulls off sugary yet psychotic all-American CEO well, Charlie's fun as her henchman, and Elton John who was weirdly amazing and honestly one of the more memorable parts. The biggest flaw dragging it down mostly comes from how stuffed it got, like how they kept going back to every single person that appeared in the film who was affected by Poppy's drugs to establish the stakes when they could've used the time for other scenes.
Fridging Roxy is the biggest problem I had with the film. Merlin's death was annoying but it was a good sendoff and emotionally worked, compared to the unceremonious two minutes she gets. Hopefully she managed to escape. The President subplot was kinda eh and unnecessary, and felt a bit distracting at times.
Tatum and Berry got surprisingly less screentime then I thought they would, but now that Kingsman is a series, they'll probably feature more in the next installment.
edited 1st Oct '17 9:30:58 AM by Nouct
Yeah for their debut film, the Statesman really got shafted in terms of screen time and development. The cuts really made almost all of them look more like glorified cameos in this.
The Statesman was oddly understaffed. A total of four Statesman agents physically appeared on screen for the whole movie , and the only active field agent (Whiskey) turned out to be a traitor.
edited 1st Oct '17 7:01:55 PM by Nightwire
Bite my shiny metal ass.Finally got to see this film. On the whole, an enjoyable and very over the top action film, but not as entertaining as the first one.
Merlin's death felt a a bit forced to me, but at least it was beautifully done. Roxy's death, on the other hand, was horribly unnecessary. Actually the whole treatment of the character seems like a huge middle finger to anybody who liked her in the first film (I did...).
Harry's resurrection (I hardly need the spoiler tags for that one...) was more interesting than I thought, especially when he was revealed not to have fully recovered. The fact that the butterfly hallucinations were never used to stop him from doing his duty was a nice touch, while His shooting of Whiskey and the following doubts that he had become completely paranoid was rather welcome in my book, especially since I wondered for a while if they were going to go that route.
Poppy and the President were quite fun to watch. Elton John seemed overjoyed to be acting in a Kingsman film, and that was communicative.
I also liked the subversion of the usual Bond trope regarding the girl he's with at the end of the film in the character of Princess Tilde, who was not only rather sweet, but also brought poor Eggsy troubles James Bond never faced.
Other than that, there were plenty of What An Idiot moments in that film that bothered me, such as the fact that Eggsy's spy arsenal is accessible with the touch of a button (while entering his cab requires a biometric scan), and of course his forgetting to check on the mechanical arm he brought inside the base.
I keep hoping Roxy would be back in a sequel, but I'm not counting too much on that... Somehow I get the feeling that the producers never envisioned the character as being important and don't seem to grasp why there is such a fandom for her or that there is one in the first place.
Whatever your favourite work is, there is a Vocal Minority that considers it the Worst. Whatever. Ever!.I don't really get why they killed off a bunch of characters. I mean, I sort of get it, shock value. But it mostly feels pointless. other than merlin, I wasn't invested enough to really care.
edited 13th Dec '17 9:23:58 AM by willyolio
Yeah I'm still rubbing my head in annoyance over that.
Merlin and Roxy are the two deaths that upset me in a bad way. The former because it feels a bit tacked on to add unnecessary drama, the latter because it is a gigantic disservice to a character I liked.
Whatever your favourite work is, there is a Vocal Minority that considers it the Worst. Whatever. Ever!.I just popped in to say I'm glad they took what would probably have been a one-note character who was only there to sleep with the hero, and made her into a stable character on her own.
I have two ideas:
1:] They were cleaning the slate of the cast so they could add the Statesmen
2:] There's some serious behind the scenes pay negotiations.
I think the Kingsmen movies do have a small matter of the fact they are written to emphasize that Roger Moore spy movies are DANGEROUS and horrifying. They're a deconstruction of the Martini style of spy fiction as well as an example of the genre where all the overthetopeness is killing real people.
edited 15th Dec '17 10:39:35 AM by CharlesPhipps
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.So I finished watching this a few minutes before I went off to watch The last Jedi.
I will agree with what everyone said about Roxy. She deserved better. That being said, considering how they were able to save Harry (and exactly how I said it'd need to be done, with someone getting to him very quickly after his death) and the fact that we see her diving for cover makes me think there's a chance she's not done for yet. After all, Kingsman puts some pretty good protective shit in everything. Maybe there was a secret bunker in the house or something.
Outside of that, it was pretty cool; not quite as good as the first movie, but still enjoyable.
One Strip! One Strip!
Wouldn't the entire message of this film about drug users be political, though? In all honesty I don't see why people insist that works should not be political, everything is to some extent political. I'm ambivalent about him not making a jab, not everybody has to make a jab, but it's not worthy of praise or anything.
Have you any dreams you'd like to sell?