Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017)

I loved the first Kingsman movie. It was such a breath of fresh air with its ridiculousness and on-the-nose parody of its genre (not too far off from what I felt Deadpool did with its genre). Matthew Vaughn's direction made it quite a briskly-paced film as well while also having enough substance and good character writing to make it good in the slower, smaller moments. Naturally, I was looking forward to seeing this sequel after such a refreshing initial installment.

Unfortunately, Kingsman: The Golden Circle suffers dearly from a rampant disease in Hollywood: sequelitis. It's that condition that so many second and third installments have where they try to make everything bigger in scope by stuffing every second of the film with subplots upon subplots and new characters upon new characters. This typically results in very poorly paced movies where the audience is seldom given a moment to breathe.

And...that's exactly what happened here. Now, I will say that if you loved the first film, it will be pretty easy to watch this one. The same characters are here with the same highly stylized and incredibly violent action sequences and the same ridiculousness and sense of parody. However, the fact of the matter is that it's all the same as the first film, making The Golden Circle lack a sense of originality and freshness. It could be said that any highly original first film of a franchise can have this exact same problem, but not all of them do: sometimes, changing up a formula that worked really well the first time can go a long way in making a film more memorable than it otherwise would be.

The largest part of this problem in The Golden Circle is the overstuffed plot. There are countless subplots that pop up all over the place, and for the most part everything serves as a way to keep the story going. This film is two hours and twenty minutes long, but in that entire space there's never any room given to us to breathe because every scene is focused on moving the story along in some way. Also, several new characters that are introduced get far less screen time than they deserve, especially with the way the film ends setting up a sequel. It's not that I think these characters are a bad idea; rather, they just are not fleshed out by the writing. I have no doubt that they could be very good characters if given enough development, but for this film they just feel like sequel setup.

Even with the major pacing flaws, The Golden Circle still has some good qualities that make the film enjoyable to watch. The action sequences are still well-crafted with an emphasis on the elaborate and ridiculous, while the performances leave little if nothing to be desired (at least for a movie of this type). Taron Egerton once again does spectacular work as Eggsy, and Colin Firth's return does a lot of favors as well. None of the new characters offer bad performances, and for the little development most of them get they actually do a pretty good job.

In spite of the really good stuff that pops up here and there, Kingsman: The Golden Circle still feels mediocre at its end. Yes, it does recreate much of its predecessor's good material; however, when a film has this poor of pacing and such little room for the audience to breathe, it just can't be helped enough to make it truly good. If you liked the first Kingsman film, you might find this one good; however, for the rest of you, The Golden Circle probably isn't worth your time.

My recommendation: Watch it if you love Kingsman. Otherwise, skip it. 

My grade: 54