Kingsman: The Golden Circle

When Kingsman: The Secret Service came out in 2014, it was a cultural sensation. It took on the aged spy genre, and revitalized it with a tongue-in-cheek perspective. After such critical and box office acclaim, naturally, a sequel has come along: Kingsman: The Golden Circle.

The Golden Circle sees our fully-fledged secret agent Eggsy (Taron Egerton), thrown into the mull as a drug lord named Poppy (Julianne Moore) cripples the Kingsmen. Eggsy and the techy Merlin (Mark Strong), team up with the Statesmen, the Kingsmen equivalent in the US, to take down Poppy.

This film is the sequel that any Kingsman fan could have hoped for. There is a continuing character development, as well as the introduction of a slew of new personalities that subtly set up a new possible cinematic universe. The action scenes are as enjoyable as ever (though nothing can beat that exhilarating church scene from the first film), the stakes are raised, and the humor is kept sharp thanks to returning director Mattew Vaughn. But that’s not to say that all is smooth sailing with Golden Circle.

While the sequel itself is original, the parodic elements of the first film seem to dissipate here as the franchise embraces a more generic identity. You can start to see some unnecessary action scenes added for the sake of filling a quota, and an overcrowded cast of Oscar winners, whose names can shine on the poster. Thankfully, the film can spruce itself up here and there with its great villain, and the stellar Egerton.

The film is a good continuation to the first film, but you can sense that as the studio found out they had a hit on their hands with the first film, they started to dig their claws and commercializing this film a bit more. There’s certainly a lot of life left in this franchise, and with the great connection that the cast and director have shown us, I look forward to seeing more.

7.4/10