Review of Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017) by Kaptenvideo — 05 Oct 2017

A miracle has born! I just saw a mainstream big budget action movie; based on a comic and featuring superheroes (just call them secret agents); lasting 140 minutes – at least 30 more than any movie of its ilk should; and I enjoyed myself and left kind of wanting for more! I.

Honestly couldn’t see this happening. the last time I was really into mainstream big budget projects was somewhen circa the beginning of the century.

This is the sequel to 2014’s new kind of secret agent movie – let’s call it James Bond introduced to the YA generation. This time they battle the evil mafiosos who like to urinate on other battle (hence the name "golden ring")... or maybe just some evil-doers or the other.

Some of the original cast has returned, including Taron Egerton as the central young hero and Hanna Alström as his girlfriend the Swedish princess, Mark Strong, and Colin Firth, and there are many new famous faces, including Halle Berry, Jeff Bridges, Julianne Moore, Emily Watson, Channing Tatum, and, er, Elton John as himself.

Matthew Vaughn has always been a versatile and exemplary director who’s noteworthy for bold visual inventiveness and stylishness in his movies, from heavily effect-based, choreographed and edited fights, to minimalist but glamorous look of the world, to outlandish gadgets used to fight evil. OK, I know it's all a team effort, but he's still the guys who pulls it all together, innit?

After seeing „The Golden Circle“ I believe even more that Vaughn really was unofficially directing Guy Ritchie’s first and best two movies for him.

This movie is visually wild and crazy like a „Snatch.“, if the latter was a mainstream comic book / superhero project. You can have fun just cherishing how everything looks and plays out on the screen. As usual, screenplay is by Vaughn himself and his long-time writing partner Jane Goldman.

Like all my favorite porn flicks, „The Golden Circle“ already starts with a bang, ramps us the pace and holds it, and doesn’t end before everybody involved has had their fair share.

There are car chases, fights (I am kind of surprises that there’s still so many original fights in movies!) and bombastic setpieces involving an unusual lasso, robots, meat mincing machine and more. But you could already expect some crazy **** based on the first movie, yeah?

It’s not a perfect movie. The characters and the plot are not really that interesting in a meaningful way (I know, I know, it’s still a mainstream big budget action, it’s not supposed to be that interesting).

What is worse: all the famous faces joining the cast don’t really have anything cool to do, and their roles are rather small, which is surprising, especially considering Berry.

One could say it’s kind of a lost chance but it’s also true that there’s so much happening that there’s no need for famous faces to add anything, really. Maybe their roles are small-ish for budget reasons. But, then, why add so many of them anyway?

Leaving minor niggles like this aside, the „Kingsman“ sequel is a kick-ass joyride of a movie which not only looks good and feels good but left me wanting for more.

More action, more surprisingly but deliciously weird jokes, more style, more of this secret world which plays something like „MIB“ meets 007 meets superhero movies, more enjoyable details such as drug kingpin creating American 1950’s nostalgia land in the jungle for home, more outlandish turns of events such as the U.S. president going renegade etc.

For a blockbuster, „The Golden Circle“ sure does have a lot of personality, both plot- and visual style wise. And for that, I applaud it! I really wish most pure entertainment movies were shorter. But "Kingsman 2" is 140 minutes, I wasn’t bored once and left asking for more!

Many critics seem disappointed by „The Golden Circle“, for example, Rotten’s Tomatoes’ consensus says the part deux offers more of everything that made its predecessor so much fun, but lacks the original's wild creative spark.

I think the real situ is exactly vice versa, and the first part, while good enough, is lacking compared to the sequel.