It was my impression that the first Kingsman movie wasn’t exactly *universally* loved–I thought it was better than I’d anticipated, myself–but it was obviously successful enough that they greenlit a sequel. I have mixed thoughts on the result! Let’s dive in, shall we? 🙂
THE BLURB:
With their headquarters destroyed and the world held hostage, members of Kingsman find new allies when they discover a spy organization in the United States known as Statesman. In an adventure that tests their strength and wits, the elite secret agents from both sides of the pond band together to battle a ruthless enemy and save the day, something that’s becoming a bit of a habit for Eggsy.
WHAT WORKED:
I wouldn’t say that the Kingsman left me with a lot of pop-culture impressions, but it did leave me with at least one: a hero in a tailored suit is pretty fucking awesome. This movie delivers on that again, at least with our main group of heroes. The Americans, perhaps, less-so, but we’ll talk about that later. I dig the threads, and the accessories that come with them; the glasses, sunnies, shoes, weapons, and drinks. Much class.
I dug that our villainess’s hideout was in the jungle. I wouldn’t say I dug much else about the villainess, or even the aesthetic of her hideout, but I *did* like that it was in the jungle. The shenanigans set around that were super fun.
The actor who plays Eggsy is *surprisingly* charming. I remember thinking this about the first movie, and it’s true here, too. He’s instantly likeable, even though you might be like me and see his face, or read about who his character is supposed to be and want to punch him in the face. Taron Eggerton; keep an eye on him. He’s really, really good. Colin Firth, is of course amazing…seriously…this series of movies literally do not work without him.
The standout, however, is easily Mark Strong. EASILY. And there is *a lot* of Mark Strong and Taron Eggerton in this movie…and it’s goddamn magic. Mark’s character is thrust into the same fish-out-of-water role that Eggerton’s is – they’re not ready to face the world alone, without the backup of their agency. That’s a brilliant choice for the movie; it plays off the heals of the “academy/training” storyline of the first film SO WELL. It’s grounded. It’s realistic…and Mark Strong is particularly adept in inhabiting that role. He steals the movie.
WHAT DIDN’T:
In a name: Julianne Moore.
I don’t mean 100% as a knock on her performance, though I wasn’t a fan of that either, to be honest…I mean that pretty much 100% of the movie that had to deal with her character was bad.
I didn’t get her evil plan, or see how it could POSSIBLY have worked…and listen, I know we’re talking about James Bond shit, here, but EVEN IN THAT CRAZY WORLD it needs to make some sense. Her virus plan literally didn’t, on any level, from how she supposedly got it out into the world, to where she was going to go with it if it did actually work.
I didn’t like the 50s mainstreet town in the middle of the jungle, with somehow lots of super advanced robotics. The jungle, sure…but a 50s small town? With a diner, robot dogs, colombian drug lords, and a movie theater. I don’t get it. Slapped together.
I also didn’t like most of the American stuff either, unfortunately. You had CHANNING TATUM…and you reduced him to like, three scenes and he’s a complete tool. Wasted opportunity there. Instead, we got a ton of Pedro Pascal as the “cowboy” they team up with–the American organization is called the “Statesmen” and is hidden inside a whisky factory, of course–and guys, I haven’t seen Narcos, and I hear that show is amazing, so I’ll withhold my judgement of him as an actor overall…but I was not impressed with him in this movie. He was flat. Boring. No chemistry with his castmates. Blech.
The whole “Statesmen” I could take or leave. It really, really felt like the Brits doing “AMERICA!” in the broadest, most cliche strokes they could, and I’m sure that played well across the pond, but it wasn’t all that interesting for me here, I guess, because it was just so broad and bland. Sure, make fun of American, be my guest! But, at least be *funny* about it, or more sharp-witted. The end result was that I wished we were somewhere else in the movie for large chunks of The Golden Circle. Maybe that’s why I liked the jungle–at least it was somewhere interesting.
So, yeah…like most sequels, this one was hit-and-miss. They DID make some good decisions, like pairing Eggsy and Merlin together for the first half of the film, and making sure we also got plenty of Colin Firth in there, too…but the STORY on this one was a dud, as were basically all of the newly introduced characters. A bit disappointing, and really illustrative to me how hard it is to build a franchise that really leaves an impression on an audience.
5 out of 10 – meh