KINGSMAN: THE GOLDEN CIRCLE (2017) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

kingsman: the golden circle (2017) movie

Genre               |   Action Spy-Fi

Classification   |   MA 15+

Running time   |   141 minutes

Released         |   21 September 2017

cast

​Taron Egerton as Eggsy
Colin Firth as Harry
Mark Strong as Merlin

director

Matthew Vaughn

writer

Matthew Vaughn &
​Jane Goldman

cinematographer

George Richmon

music

Henry Jackman
Matthew Margeson

film editor

​​Eddie Hamilton

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box office result

Worldwide              $410,309,411  

Australia                 $​14,507,723

North America        $​100,234,838

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the best dialogue

Elton John: Now, go off and save the world.
Harry Hart: If I save the world, can I have two tickets to your next concert?
Elton John: Darling, if you save the world, you can have a backstage pass.

Harry Hart: As one of our founding Kingsman once said: This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

Princess Tilde: Well, if you save the world, you know what that means.
Eggsy: [Knowing smile] Yeah, all right.

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KINGSMAN: THE GOLDEN CIRCLE (2017) IMAGES

KINGSMAN: THE GOLDEN CIRCLE (2017) STORY SYNOPSIS

​When the Kingsman headquarters are destroyed and the world is held hostage, their journey leads them to the discovery of an allied spy organization in the US called Statesman, dating back to the day they were both founded. In a new adventure that tests their agents' strength and wits to the limit, these two elite secret organizations band together to defeat a ruthless common enemy, in order to save the world, something that's becoming a bit of a habit for Eggsy...​

KINGSMAN: THE GOLDEN CIRCLE (2017) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 21 September 2017
​Pop Movee Rating ⭐⭐⭐

​Kingsman: The Golden Circle aims to expand the mythology of its 2014 predecessor, but, unfortunately, is short of the mark. The first Kingsman movie had the benefit of both an origin story and a devil-may-care approach to crossing the boundaries of the Spy-Fi genre. The second installment never feels like it pushes beyond what the first movie established and it certainly lacks the creativity to offend in the same manner of the original. Given The Golden Circle was written by Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman, the team who wrote the original movie, it comes as a surprise this second effort doesn’t make an effort to stretch the formula past breaking point. As he did with the original, Vaughn also directed The Golden Circle, but there’s no creative uplift of the material on this front either. The performances and staging feel very much like an extension of the original movie and, by the end of the new movie’s 141 minute running time, nothing in the Kingsman universe feels as though it’s movie forward in any meaningful manner.

The Golden Circle wastes no time in trying to establish its credentials, as Taron Egerton’s Eggsy comes under siege from a former Kingsman candidate who didn’t make the final cut. A high-octane pursuit through the streets of London comes to end with Eggsy forced to jump into a river of shit in an effort to keep a promise to a friend. Vaughn and Goldman have teamed Eggsy up with Princess Tilde (Hanna Alstrom), the young, blonde beauty from the end of the first movie, and the pair have settled into domestic life, having taken up residence in Harry Hart’s old apartment. The story makes an effort to show that Eggsy still has time for his knock-about mates, but the constant referral back to these characters throughout the film slows the pace of the story and do nothing other than to demonstrate that Eggsy has moved into a very different plane of existence since becoming a Kingsman. For a Kingsman, danger is never far away and the story moves quickly to isolate Eggsy and Merlin (Mark Strong), as the former’s attacker from the opening scene is revealed to have connections with the mad-as-a-meat-snake, billionaire drug manufacturer Poppy (Julianne Moore). In an attempt to legitimize her drug empire, Poppy hatches a scheme to wipe out the Kingsman and hold the world’s governments to ransom, deliberately spiking her own drug crops with a toxin that kills any and all drug users!

By this stage, even those acquainted with the Kingsman franchise will, more than likely, be scratching their heads and asking “What the fuck is going on?” It may be wrong to assume, but the whole story seems as if was concocted by someone who’s indulged a little too much in Poppy’s product. Much of what transpires throughout the course of the story doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense. The return of Harry Hart (Colin Firth) is welcome, but the explanation of how he came back from the brink is contrived and makes something of a mockery of the ideals he stood for in the first movie. It seems as though Vaughn was able to convince Colin Firth to return and that he and Goldman then had to write themselves out of a corner. As far as the new characters introduced in The Golden Circle, none of them really make an impact. Channing Tatum has another one of those roles where he floats around the edges of the story but doesn’t add any real value. Jeff Bridges mumbles his way through yet another role. Pedro Pascal seems weirdly miscast, trying to be some kind of All-American Wannabe. Only Halle Berry, as Merlin’s American counterpart Ginger, makes any sort of impression from among the Statesman; the United States version of the Kingsman. Then there’s Julianne Moore as Poppy. She’s meant to be a complete whack job, but she doesn’t have the screen presence to “go big” and fill the scene like Samuel L. Jackson did in the first. In fairness, no one is going to buy a ticket to a Kingsman movie expecting Award-winning turns, but, it would be nice to have someone other than Mark Strong to give the movie some dramatic backbone.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle doesn’t have the element of surprise on its side and, as a result, lacks the subsequent delight that came with the convention-bending, boundary-pushing approach of the first movie. Matthew Vaughn has delivered a follow-up that shows the viewer a great bag of tricks, but none of them are new; they just go a lot longer. A number of characters are sacrificed for the sake of spectacle, but that seems okay, because they can just resurrect them in the next Kingsman movie; like they did with Harry Hart for this one. Eggsy has definitely lost his “Boyish” charm that also has a fair amount of cocky wanker built into it, but, by making him a true Kingsman, the rash, unpredictable, rude traits of his character are gone and make him far less interesting. Even the gratuitous sight gags, both sexual and violent, seem to be a little more forced this time around. Is it terrible? No way. Is it predictable? In much the same way that Elton John lapses into his Prima Donna persona and uses his screen time to scream “Fuck You” at Julianne Moore’s Poppy, yes; it’s predictable.

KINGSMAN: THE GOLDEN CIRCLE MOVIE (2017) USEFUL LINKS

Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017) - IMDb 
Kingsman: The Golden Circle - Wikipedia 
Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017) - Rotten Tomatoes 

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