Kingsman: The Secret Service

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SPOILER-FREE REVIEW

     The swash-buckling Kingsman return to the big screen in The Golden Circle, the sequel to 2014’s smash hit Kingsman: The Secret Service. The Golden Circle follows Eggsy (Taron Egerton) after his promotion to full-fledged member of the Kingsman super-spy organization. When the ominous Golden Circle drug cartel deal the Kingsman a critical blow, Eggsy and Merlin (Mark Strong) must ally with their American counterparts, the Statesman, to avenge their fellow agents and save the world.

     Kingsman first splashed onto the scene in 2014, making a name for itself with ridiculous, over-the-top violence and action and a keen sense of fun. If you liked The Secret Service, odds are you’ll enjoy The Golden Circle, which basically hits all the same marks. At the same time, director Matthew Vaughn doesn’t produce as polished a product this time around: the fun doesn’t come quite so naturally and the problems are more pronounced.

     Before I get into spoiler-filled discussion, fair warning: Like its predecessor, The Golden Circle most definitely earns its R-rating. Expect quite a bit of violence (though not a ton of gore), and some pretty extreme sexual content.

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BEWARE: HERE THERE BE SPOILERS

     In general, the movie gets the highlights right, packing in sleek spy-craft, over-the-top action, high-tech gadgetry, and cheeky humor. Eggsy’s antics might not feel quite as fresh as in the original (by-product of, you know, being a sequel), but there’s enough silliness to keep The Golden Circle afloat—which is saying something, because the movie has an absurdly long runtime. And although this installment doesn’t exactly provide hard-hitting character drama, let’s get real. Those kind of things aren’t what you’re watching a movie like Kingsman for. You want to see Taron Egerton and Colin Firth take out large, faceless crowds of enemies in a relentless wave of Snyder-esque violence, and on that count, The Golden Circle delivers.

     The Golden Circle does make some effort to freshen things up. Although it relies on the same sense of swanky British style, it also introduces the Statesman for an injection of new flavor. Fans might be divided on how substantive the new additions are (Channing Tatum, for instance, is barely in the movie), but the Statesman’s presence is certainly welcome (especially Halle Berry’s Ginger Ale and Pedro Pascal’s Whiskey). In any case, the film doesn’t have much new to offer besides the advent of the Statesman, which is a bit disappointing considering how inventive The Secret Service was.

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     One of the things I appreciate most about this franchise is its willingness to introduce bombastic, eccentric, and all-around ridiculous villains—hearkening back to classic Bond. Many franchises today opt for self-serious, “plausible” villains, so it’s refreshing to see a series embrace villains and the devious plans they hatch. In this movie, Julianne Moore plays Poppy, the new villain who heads the sinister Golden Circle. As a veteran (read: highly over-qualified) actress, Moore is deliciously crazy.

     But while there’s still a lot to like about this franchise, the sequel can’t muster the same kind of effortless fun as Secret Service; it has to work for its moments and can’t quite land all of them. Case in point: Elton John’s very prominent (and very bizarre) role. John shows up periodically throughout the film, alternatively performing and fighting the baddies. His moments earn a few worthy laughs, but he ends up overstaying his welcome, turning up again and again in ever-weirder snippets. Vaughn just doesn’t seem to know when the move on to the next joke, and that inability to control tone makes this installment a bit weaker than the last.

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     The Golden Circle also exhibits some questionable tendencies. In a rather inexplicable move, the film gets political, making thinly-veiled jabs at America’s attitude toward the war on drugs. The actual politics of that situation aside, the choice to use a movie like Kingsman as a platform seems a bit odd; the last thing you need in a care-free, debonair spy thriller is to weigh things down with un-subtle political preaching. Seriously, it’s hard to get much less subtle than the messaging here—alongside a few clear articulations of the political stance from sympathetic characters, the movie literally has the government round up drug-users and throw them in cages. Yikes.

     Next on the “why would you do this” list is the movie’s extreme sexual content. The Golden Circle actually scales the sexuality back for most of its runtime, owing in large part to the fact that Eggsy’s in a committed relationship and therefore can’t maintain the same cavalier attitude about sexual conquests. But that doesn’t stop Vaughn from including the Glastonbury music festival sequence, which sees the camera zoom in on—and into—places we aren’t used to seeing on-screen. Given the current political/social climate and the obvious moral asterisk—and that it’s hard to find an argument that necessitates its inclusion for any artistic or story purposes—this is a surprising choice.

     FINAL VERDICT: Though it’s not quite as sleek or original as The Secret Service and it occasionally gives way to some objectionable material, Kingsman: The Golden Circle delivers the essentials for fans of the series.

Watch the trailer here. 

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