I apologize, folks, for both the lateness and brevity of this post, but due to unexpected technical difficulties that have prevented me from accessing the review that I was working on for this film, I decided to just do a short review for it instead so that I could get it out at a reasonable time. With that said, let’s delve into Kingsman: The Golden Circle, the highly-anticipated follow-up to director Matthew Vaughn’s 2015 effort, Kingsman: The Secret Service. In a year that saw the release of several spy-themed films, including the latest installments of the Mission: Impossible and James Bond franchises, this adaptation of comic book writer Mark Millar’s 2012 comic series of the same name managed to stand out amongst its peers thanks to its thrilling action sequences and a great origin story for its likable main protagonist, Eggsy. The same strengths apply to this new film as well, which does up the ante in terms of the ludicrous but still all-around entertaining action sequences. As was the case with the first film, though, the extreme brutality of some of these sequences may prove to be a bit much for some. However, also like its predecessor, the film manages to temper this thanks to some great character development for Eggsy, who’s once again played excellently by Taron Egerton, and his two main allies, Harry Hart and Merlin. Yes, as seen in the trailers, Colin Firth returns as Harry after his presumed death in the previous film, and for what it’s worth, the way in which this film explains his return does make sense in the context of this universe. Plus, Harry’s ‘road to recovery’ is handled greatly thanks to both the writing and Firth’s performance. Closing out the main trio is Kingsman tech guru Merlin, played by Matthew Vaughn regular Mark Strong, who also gets some great character moments as well.
Now, with all that said, that doesn’t necessarily mean that this film is ‘perfect’. Despite the addition of the Kingsman’s American cousins, the Statesman, most of the new characters in this film don’t exactly get much to work with (e.g. even though he appears prominently in the trailers, Channing Tatum’s Agent Tequila is basically just a ‘cameo’ role). The film also boasts a longer runtime than its predecessor, meaning that some scenes do drag a bit. And it could even be argued that this film’s plot doesn’t do much different compared to the first film, as there are some noticeable similarities between the two. Still, what’s not to love about a film that opens with a car chase set to Prince’s ‘Let’s Go Crazy’, concludes with an epic shoot-out set to Elton John’s ‘Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting’, and features the Rocket Man himself in one of the most epic cameos in recent memory. In short, this film reminds me a lot of another sequel that came out this year, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Both films were entertaining follow-ups to their excellent predecessors but were also deemed by most critics as being ‘inferior’ to them. And yet, like Guardians 2, I find that I kind of like this film more than the first Kingsman. Obviously, I’m going to have to see this film again to see if this truly ends up being the case but, suffice it to say, after the crap that I had to put up with last week thanks to a film that shall not be named, Kingsman: The Golden Circle was exactly the ‘pick-me-up’ that I needed.
Rating: 5/5!
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