Movie Review: Kingsman: The Golden Circle

Kingsman: The Golden Circle introduces its powerful drug-dealer antagonist Poppy Adams (the phenomenal Julianne Moore) in a scene where she stuffs one of her henchman into a meat grinder for lying to her, presses his remains into the shape of a hamburger and forces his friend to eat it in front of her. This absurd series of events marked the moment that I knew The Golden Circle was a successful sequel.

2015's The Secret Service's willingness to approach the traditionally-preposterous spy genre in a tongue-in-cheek manner helped make the film great and director Matthew Vaughn doesn't lose sight of that inspired lunacy in the follow-up. Even though the return of Harry Hart (Colin Firth) after his presumed death in the previous installment brings some uneven flashes of sentimentality into the story, Vaughn and his longtime writing partner Jane Goldman are well-aware that the Kingsman brand is defined by its unhinged nature. The duo's script doubles down on the freewheeling energy, charismatic characters and wild action that drove its predecessor while adding enough surprises (John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads" serving as the soundtrack for a pivotal fight scene, Elton John playing a pissed-off, ass-kicking version of himself, some surprisingly well-constructed commentary on how the United States government handles and views drug addiction) to maintain a necessary sense of unpredictability. Making subtle, sensible tweaks to the formula that brought you success in the past is the blueprint for a successful sequel and thanks to the sharpness of its creative personnel, Golden Circle pulls this feat off beautifully.  

While Vaughn deserves a lot of credit for successfully moving this franchise forward, his gift for directing action scenes is still his biggest asset as a filmmaker. While there's nothing here that's as jaw-dropping as the original's widely-lauded church scene, every action sequence in The Golden Circle is crisp, confident and well-choreographed/edited (the ski lift/cabin sequence is the standout this time around). After watching Jon Watts (Spider-Man: Homecoming) and Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman) deliver messy collections of incomprehensible fight scenes over the past few months, it was great to watch an action-driven blockbuster where the person at the helm wasn't overwhelmed by working with elaborate, CGI-heavy setpieces.

My only real problem with The Golden Circle was the underutilization of the Kingman's "American cousins" in the Statesman. When you add huge names like Jeff Bridges, Halle Berry and Channing Tatum to the cast, you'd expect them to pick up some relatively significant screen time. However, the Statesman, with the exception of Pedro Pascal's lasso-slinging Agent Whiskey, are relegated to about 25 minutes of screen time and mostly just serve as a spy gadget rental service for the Kingsman following the destruction of their headquarters at the beginning of the film. Hopefully the final installment of this planned trilogy will give us the scenes of a shotgun-touting Tatum and an umbrella-wielding Firth mowing down legions of bad guys that we all deserve.

I couldn't really ask for a better kickoff to fall's blockbuster slate than The Golden Circle. It's a giddily over-the-top, amusing and wildly entertaining ride that's pretty much on par with the quality of the original. Barring an influx of excellent projects in the final three months, The Golden Circle should end up going down as one of my favorite action films of 2017.  

4/5 Stars