REVIEWBRUARY [DAY 2]: KINGSMAN: THE GOLDEN CIRCLE. 5.5/10; GRADE: C

SYNOPSIS

Kingsman: The Golden Circle is the 2017 sequel to the surprise hit of 2014. Golden Circle continues Eggsy’s adventures as a Kingsman until an organisation shattering event pushes him out of his comfort zone, leaving him, his family and his country in danger. This sequel aims to go bigger and better, expanding across the pond to America and raising the stakes of potential failure. With the addition of the Statesmen (America’s Kingsman), we are introduced to a whole host of new additions – happened to each be played by some incredible, box-office drawing actors; Jeff Bridges, Channing Tatum, Halle Berry and Juilliana Moore are recruited whilst Taron Egerton, Colin Firth and Mark Strong return as the last remaining Kingmsan

REVIEW

I try not to rate a sequel in comparison to its original, but it so hard especially for Kingsman. The Golden Circle feels as hypocritical Hollywood can get, (sort of like 22 Jump Street, expect they don’t pull it out the bag). To put it in the simple terms, this sequel feels exactly like something the original joked about

I am not sure whether I just expected too much from this sequel but I couldn’t help but just feel completely under-whelmed. I didn’t come away from the film with any real character development for any of the characters. The new additions were completely un-necessary and the added “star power” was not really used. Channing Tatum was doing “something” during the entire movie which really amounted to nothing. The big end twist with one of the other Statesmen meant nothing to me because I couldn’t  even remember his name. It didn’t come as a shock because I didn’t know enough about his character to go “wow”. And Halle Berry does a lot of clicking and typing but it all again results to zero contribution to the plot. That being said, I really liked Merlin this time around and saw him come into his element.

Honestly, where I think this loses its appeal is simple. It lost the heart of the first and the surprise factor. Eggsy – all of a sudden is dating a princess – bearing in mind, so much of the first film was focused on Roxy and him, and Eggsy’s upbringing and personality and how it is anything but “Kingsman-like”. And then. all of a sudden he is dating a princess (don’t worry this isn’t a spoiler, it is just thrown in there that they have been dating for a year). To have this massive jump from a newly qualified, newly matured Eggsy – to having this Kingsman agent who is in love with a princess, being the only Kingsman still alive was something that had to perfectly executed to work and unfortunately it wasn’t. To not actually see Eggsy mature, and just have it thrown on you that he has it was hard to accept that for a character you had invested effort into.

If you haven’t seen the trailers, some spoiler-ish territory is coming your way. For me, killing everyone and everything from the first was a bit “ok”, and it felt like “so now we have done this – it’s so we can go to the Statesmen”. And it was something very hard to pull off and it never really worked, as expressed above, the Statesmen were poor – even Jeff Bridges didn’t do anything. This was more an Eggsy film than a Kingmans film.

A film can only be as good as its villain. And Julianne Moore was POOR, the U.S president was a better villain that her (not like it is the same in real life). But, I did not care for Julianne Moore at all, don’t remember her character’s name – or how she is so powerful, or why no-one had picked up one her before, or why they decided to target the Kingsman first and not every secret intelligence and then given the poison to everyone. But oh, well – I still loved the president.

Of course, the fight scenes looked absolutely amazing. Every scene was incredible from the first fight scene in the taxi to the very last in the diner. These fights were visually amazing and I have no doubt we will see more fight scenes like this.

SPOILER. I would’ve liked a bold move where he doesn’t get Harry back – so he has to train Harry – this would’ve added character depth and really provided some emotional moments as it becomes clear that whilst Harry – a guy he is depending on is next to him in essence he isn’t next to him in spirit.

This was literally just a sequel for the sake of making a sequel – a shell of the first film. Doing exactly what the first laughed at, and that is what is ultimately disappointing.

AZ