Kingsman: Il cerchio d'oro

Kingsman: The Secret Service is one of the surprise hit of 2015. It's unexpectedly good, with great humor, acting, action, and chemistry with other actors. So when director Matthew Vaughn decides to do a follow-up, I was pretty excited to see Eggsy and co. kicking ass once again. Being dubbed as a "proper" spy movie, the movie has since build a lot of excitement, but does it lived up to the hype?

The answer, is a simple no.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle is indeed enjoyable, but it has plenty of flaws that makes the movie fail to deliver it's promise as a "proper" spy movie.

To start, everyone did very well in delivering their roles. Taron Egerton once again stole women's hearts as the likable Eggsy. Colin Firth returns as Harry Hart and his reintroduction is actually made sense imo, and he did a great job portraying him. Mark Strong did a great job as Merlin. Hally Berry, Channing Tatum, Jeff Bridges, Pedro Pascal also did a great job, though I'll admit that Channing Tatum's character is just a simple plot device. Julianne Moore as Poppy, though not menacing, also did a very good job. The biggest surprise is Elton John. He's the "Joker" in the movie, and he did very well.

The action scenes were over-the-top, sometimes idiotic, but very enjoyable, though this brings to one of my cons. The cinematography is fantastic it's very well shot, though the action scenes has plenty of angle cuts, and the editing was also great.

But, as stated before, the flaws in the movie makes the movie fail to meet our expectations. Most of this is because the terrible marketing campaign, that reveals some of the twists and turns of the movie that should have worked (even Matthew Vaughn agrees). The CGI is mostly used to blend several cuts into seemingly one single shot, and despite it actually worked in the first movie, it failed here because the transition is so noticeable. The action scenes were also over- stylized, featuring more slow-fast- zoom camera-work that again, worked on the first, but failed here because it's overused. There's also a sex scene that I felt out of place, and it's most likely brings a lot of controversy. A character (nope, not Tatum's) in this movie is also very bad in terms of her character because it serves nothing but motivation for Eggsy to save the world again, and the worst part, is that this character is not even a important character in the first movie, but she has more screen time than some of the main characters from the first movie and even the new characters as well.

(SPOILER ALERT. not really, but if you think it was, there you go) Also, the movie takes a unnecessary and questionable move by killing not one, but TWO main characters from the first movie (three, if you include another memorable thing from the first movie), in which one felt very unnecessary, and the other felt like the character has to die.

Overall, the movie is entertaining, indeed. But the movie lost it's charm, and just nowhere near as good as the first one. For casual moviegoers, this is an enjoyable movie, but for a Kingsman fan like me, it's disappointing.

Final Score: 7/10

...in this follow up to the hit 2014 film from director and co-writer Matthew Vaughn. Taron Egerton stars as "Eggsy" aka Agent Galahad of the Kingsman Secret Service, a clandestine British intelligence group. After the Kingsman organization is decimated by a surprise attack, Eggsy and tech wiz Merlin (Mark Strong) head to the US to connect with the Statesman group, their American counterparts. Together they must find and defeat the Golden Circle, an international drug cartel headed by the chipper Poppy Adams (Julianne Moore).

While not rising to the high-spirited, manic fun of the first film, this is still worth a look for fans of fast-paced, comedic action films that don't take themselves seriously in the least. In many ways the plot and the villains are a rehash of the prior film, and while the Statesman characters have possibilities, they aren't fleshed out enough. The return of one character that very clearly died in the first film is something I won't go into, although the advertising made no attempt to hide his return. Elton John, as himself, has fun with his role as the unwilling prisoner of Moore's drug lord who's forced to perform his greatest hits on command. This film's centerpiece action sequence, set to John's "Saturday's Alright for Fighting", is well done, but fails to match the first film's Lynyrd Skynyrd "Free Bird" bloodbath.

What exactly was so special about Kingsman: The Secret Service to warrant a sequel this overlong, bloated & nonsensical? Sure, the first movie carried a fresh vibe and was amusing & entertaining to an extent but everything that contributed to its success and made it such a fun ride is lost in this follow-up chapter that's purely an exercise in excess. And a terrible one at that.

Set one year after the events of the first film, Kingsman: The Golden Circle finds Eggsy teaming up with the only other surviving Kingsman agent after their headquarters is completely destroyed. As the two head out to find the ones responsible, they stumble upon an allied spy organization & a familiar face, but both agencies must work together if they are to save the world from a new threat.

Co-written & directed by Matthew Vaughn (best known for Kick-Ass & X-Men: First Class), the sequel is an absolute farce from beginning to end that takes the over-the-top action of its predecessor to such levels that it becomes downright ridiculous. The new characters are awfully written & poorly integrated into the story while returning ones have nothing new to offer.

Everything that was fresh & kinetic about the first movie is exaggerated to such extent that it loses its value here. The overly-stylized action itself fails to create the same level of interest and is a tad too cartoonish this time. The story revels in foolishness but crosses that line beyond which things aren't fun but a chore to sit through. And its 141 minutes runtime doesn't help the cause either, for it is severely felt.

Coming to the performances, Kingsman finds Taron Edgerton, Mark Strong & Colin Firth reprising their roles while the new additions include Julianne Moore, Pedro Pascal, Jeff Bridges, Channing Tatum, Halle Berry & Elton John, and other than Strong, every one of them is terrible in their given roles. The stupidly named characters they play are not at all interesting, and it's clear that they all only signed up for easy money.

On an overall scale, Kingsman: The Golden Circle is an exceptionally inferior entry in the Kingsman series and is one of the worst films of the year. A dumbed down version of the original that doesn't even remember what made its predecessor click and falls flat in nearly all filmmaking departments, Vaughn's latest is a dull, rotten & atrocious piece of work that's too full of itself, and certainly isn't worth your time & money. In a word, forgettable.

First movie was great fun, this one is utterly awful. Rubbish plot, don't get me started with the implantation scene at Glastonbury - wtf? Stupid film, terrible characters and I can't believe I watched it. Do not waste your time.

'Kingsman: The Golden Circle' has everything fans of the first film could have possibly wanted and more. Action, humour and special effects are all in abundance and visually it's very impressive. The plot is decent, especially for a sequel, but it never quite reaches the same level as the first film. The British/American theme works well though and there are some very funny cultural jokes and references.

As someone who loved the first 'Kingsman', I'm pleased that the sequel didn't disappoint. It remains true to everything that made the first film such a success, including taking some big risks and thinking out of the box. The end result is an imperfect and at times messy film, but a rewarding and highly entertaining one nonetheless. 'The Golden Circle' is much better than expected but just not quite on the same level as the first film.