I had the pleasure of experiencing my first viewing of 2014’s “Kingsman:
The Secret Service” but a mere 24 hours before experiencing the release of its
sequel and the experience was quite the surprise despite over 2½ years of build
up threatening to over hype it.
The film could have benefited from a bit of trimming and
more thematic tying of the films end game to its protagonist’s development but
Eggsy’s hero’s journey from aimless street urchin with wasted potential to
international super spy and secret savior of humanity was a fun, clever, and
surprisingly earnest throwback to the heyday of ludicrous fantastical spy
films.
The movie’s sincerity, inventiveness, and visual flair
brought to life by talent both veteran and up and coming within the film
industry gave the film a spy themed vibe of what “Men in Black” was for the
late 90s.
With that comparison having been made, it’s only fitting
that the sequel, “Kingsman: The Golden Circle,” more or less comes off as the
equivalent of “Men in Black 2” for its would be franchise; uninspired fodder
that basically exists to perpetuate the brand of a popular and financially
successful series, even if it comes at the expense of the first film’s
integrity.
With the tale of his rise to power thoroughly covered, Eggsy’s
substantially less interesting journey to stop another global conspiracy that
has put his entire organization into the grave and forces him and Agent Merlin
(Mark Strong) to travel to America for reinforcements where they team up with
the local equivalent to their organization, the Statesmen, crams in quite a bit
of world building into a hyper stylized and bloated 2½ hour feature that seems
interesting on the surface level but lacks any sort of real drive or weight to
make any of its story compelling.
For example, one recurring subplot is Eggsy’s difficulty in
keeping the nature of his job from interfering with his dating life. The trope
is standard but effective when done properly but unfortunately, the context for
it here involves a relationship hook up set up by the first film’s ending as a
joke to take it out to credits with no hint of it being a regular thing. Then,
it becomes even more complicated when the film remembers that she was a
princess who should be regularly swamped with diplomatic duties and security
details but mills about like one of his lower middle class millennial pub
friends like it’s no big deal until it needs to be brought up for convenience.
This is the kind of lunacy that the film deals in
constantly; ideas that could be cool in context but can’t cash the check
without being properly worked in.
How and why does the villain, the head of an international
drug cartel, hide an automated fortress in the jungles of Cambodia that is
themed after 1950’s USA small town vibes complete with henchman in letterman
sports team jacket uniforms? How did 2 agencies paralleling each other’s
technologies, origins, and general operations on 2 different continents operate
without knowing that the other existed despite having protocols asking each
other to call upon themselves for assistance in dire circumstances?
Questions like these, along with several unnecessary decisions
made in handling the characters, not the least of which is the ill conceived
retcon of Colin Firth’s character of Galahad having survived the events of the
first film and subsequently softening the impact of Eggsy’s development, are
clearly things that the film hopes to god that you won’t dwell on because they
will make things unravel rather quickly.
Now that’s not to say that things are all bad all the time.
Matthew Vaughn continues to prove his salt as an action director as the film
kicks off its first act with a terrific car chase sequence and never quite
fails to impress on a technical level from start to finish.
Despite being noticeably tamer in the blood and gore department
than its predecessor, the action is almost pitch perfect from start to finish,
strong in its choreography, clear in its editing despite the frenetic pace, and
always astonishingly well shot. It’s almost worth the price of admission alone
but the unfortunate lack of heart and humanity behind the story its attached to
makes the entire production feel like it’s a weekend rewrite away from being
the best “GI Joe” movie never made.
Between the strong action, generally solid pacing of the
movie strong performances all around by a cast that actually did show up to
work, despite what little material they were given to work with, “Kingsman: The
Golden Circle” never quite dips into the territory of unwatchability that one
would typically associate with a movie I’d describe as an 80s Saturday morning
cartoon reject.
That sincerity that made it such an unexpected hit the first
time however, is sorely missed and sorely needed.
4 Shaken not Stirred Vodka Martini's out of 10
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