Film An enjoyable flick, but nowhere near as memorable as the first one.
One of the factors that made The Secret Service so special is that it makes fun of the whole 'Gentleman Spy' genre, with a villain obsessed with Bond films going up a James Bond-expy, making fun of all the spy tropes to hell and back. It's what makes most of the movie's charms. We all recognize these spy tropes, but then the movie subverts them in surprising ways.
Problem is, it leaves nothing for The Golden Circle. The spy tropes are all played out, so they decided to add something original like 'The Statesman' with their own cowboy gimmicks. This would've been fine had they go with it all the way. Instead, the movie can't decide what to focus on: The Kingsman or the Statesman. One minute, we're getting introduce to the would-be new main character in Tequila, then he's out of the picture as Eggsy assumes the lead again. Then Whiskey is introduced as an exciting new character...at least until Harry is back in the picture...then the Kingsman becomes the main focus again, leaving the rest of the Statesman in the sideline, and that leads to a lot of wasted potential like characters being unceremoniously killed off *cough*Roxy, Merlin*cough*, written out of the story Tequila, or turned evil Whiskey.
The weakest part of the film is the villains. Poppy is nowhere near as interesting or Genre Savvy as Valentine (which, again, thanks to the played out spy tropes in the first film), and Charlie is basically another generic Rival Turned Evil dragon unlike Gazelle who actually has a personality. Probably this is the reason why Whiskey had to pull a FaceāHeel Turn in the climax, because the villains are too uninteresting.
Personally, I don't think Harry should be back, at least not in this film. The main focus of the story should be the introduction of the Statesman. Harry's surprise return means the story would have to deal with his and Eggsy's relationship, which shifted the focus from the Statesman and by extension other Kingsman themselves. Having both Eggsy and Harry in the main roles yet again means everybody else gets sidelined. Hence, again, everybody gets killed off or turned evil. It didn't help that the promotional materials heavily hyped up his return. Just imagine if Harry didn't show up during the film, but after the credits to tease the next film. Leave the Harry subplot out of this movie, and have it be the focus of the next one instead, and the story would've been a whole lot more straightforward.
Elton John's inclusion is okay, but I also can't help but notice that his extended screentime should go to other characters that need it more.
Overall, it was enjoyable. The actions are great and fun enough to watch, but it can't decide what it wanted to be, hence, a lot of things jammed together into the plot and make it a (admittedly beautiful) mess, and that stops the movie from being anything more than another summer action flick.
6.5/10
Film Thrilling action but misses the mark of the original
Kingsman: The Golden Circle in many ways reflects the worst qualities of the "Saved for the Sequel" trope. At times, it feels like a poorly constituted patchwork collage of mismatched elements that were left on the cutting room floor from the original. On the plus side, Matthew Vaughn is on peak performance with stellar action choreography all round. It's a shame that there's little connective tissue between it all.
Golden Circle follows Eggsy (Taron Egerton), riding high in the Kingsman spy agency and now in a relationship with the fine-bottomed Swedish princess he hastily romanced at the end of the first movie. The movie sets the tone with a highly stylish battle against rejected blueblood agent Charlie (also from the first movie, now with a cyborg arm) in a modified London cab which is almost surreal in its smoothness. Then everyone from the first movie dies. Everyone except Eggsy's reliable tech guy Merlin (Mark Strong). Out of options, they head to the USA to join forces with the alcohol-denominated American equivalent of the Kingsmen, the Statesmen, in order to fight against the titular multinational drug cartel ran by an eccentric 1950s Americana-themed villainess, Poppy Adams (Julianne Moore). She doesn't have a scratch on Sam L. Jackson's lispy-voiced eco mogul Valentine, but for some reason inherits his fondness for kidnapping celebrities...
The rest is a total blur to remember, to be quite honest. There's robot dogs, a hamfisted anti-drug message, they unbelievably contrive the return of Colin Firth as Eggsy's mentor Harry in what could be the actor's most visibly bored performance yet, Eggsy graphically fingers a girl at Glastonbury, there's some cliche ski resort stuff, the evil POTUS is endorsing Poppy's weird drug conspiracy... and Elton John hogging a troubling amount of screenspace. The whole premise of the Statesmen is barely utilised, with Channing Tatum's character being a blatant Advertised Extra, probably having three minutes of screentime max, yet at the end he leaves to join Kingsman like the film had been building up to it all along? What?
To expand on Harry Hart's return, since you may remember him casually getting shot in the face in the previous film, yeah, he's back thanks to some magic gel that can apparently heal any injury. Including death. While Comic Book Death is a recurring problem in that medium, this kind of blase defilement of sacred Character Death is practically unheard of in cinema — shattering suspension of disbelief doesn't even begin to describe it. The return of Harry does lead to some expansion of his relationship to Eggsy but I can't help but feel it's unnecessary, especially since the previous film was all about their bond (ha). If they had to kill off all of the other old characters, at least give some time to develop the new ones.
A lot of these plot points, even Elton John's inclusion, were apparently on the cards for the previous film, so The Golden Circle is essentially just spare parts. This review may seem fairly scathing, but honestly, the film is enjoyable if you completely switch off your brain. The action is truly phenomenal, with the final battle being even more standout compared to Eggsy vs. Gazelle in The Secret Service. But in contrast to the last film's clever satire of spy movie tropes, the superficiality of the sequel may be disappointing.