Film Review

FILM REVIEW:

KINGSMAN: THE GOLDEN CIRCLE

  Now it may appear biased when I say that Kingsman: The Golden Circle is one of the best, if not the best, film of the summer, given that Kingsman: The Secret Service is my favorite film. Yet this just means that The Golden Circle had big shoes to fill, and fill them it did. To be said: this review contains spoilers.

  Kingsman: The Golden Circle follows the life of a street kid-turned-gentleman Eggsy Unwin. The sequel and original film focus on Eggsy and his mentor Harry Hart as Eggsy trains to become a Kingman, aka a gentleman spy. Now Kingsman: The Golden Circle is not like your stereotypical spy movie; in my opinion Eggsy is 100% cooler than James Bond. The films more so follow the lines of a satirical spy film, knowing full well that they are playing into the typical tropes, and making fun of themselves for doing so. Like most great films The Golden Circle relies heavily on choice of casting. Luckily, director Matthew Vaughn had an amazing cast to bring back for the sequel. No film can go wrong with Colin Firth (Harry) and Mark Strong (Merlin) playing supporting characters. New faces to the series include Channing Tatum, Halle Berry, Julianne Moore, Jeff Bridges, and Pedro Pascal. All characters have equally funny moments and totally badass in their own right. Julianne Moore especially does a brilliant job of making her character Poppy seem emotionless and robotic. A surprise appearance from the hilarious Elton John, and finally, Sophie Cookson and Edward Holcroft returning their roles of Roxy Morton and Charlie Hesketh. 
      With the acknowledgement of the actors, I have to point out one obvious flaw of The Golden Circle. The deaths of Merlin, Roxy, and JB (Eggsy’s lovable pug) seem like such a waste. At least Mark Strong had a strong role in the film before he was unfortunately killed in an effort to save Eggsy’s life. Roxy, however, had the potential to be such an amazing female character. She had already proved herself as the best candidate for the position of Lancelot in Kingsman: The Secret Service. Roxy was smarter, stronger, and wittier than all of the other candidates (yes, including Eggsy, let’s not forget that he failed to win the spot of Lancelot). Hopefully, Vaughn will pull another ‘whoops Harry Hart isn’t dead’ trick with Roxy…also just add more female characters in general. If you’re making fun of spy movies you have to include kick-ass female characters to spite male-filled films.

As mentioned earlier, the thing the Kingsman series does the best is make fun of itself and other spy movies. For being gentlemen spies the word ‘fuck’ takes up the majority of the dialogue (although honestly the film would not be half as good with a censored Eggsy). 

The next trope made fun of in the film is the use of codenames. Regardless of how many times the films are made and re-made when someone says “007” you think James Bond, and vise versa. The Kingsman codenames are based on the Knights of the Round Table with Arthur being the leader and Merlin being the genius behind the scenes saving Arthur and his knights. Eggsy took over the codename Galahad after Harry’s ‘death.’ Thought The Golden Circle every time Galahad is called both agents stand up and then proceed to have an awkward stare down when they realize one of them should probably get a new codename.

Finally, it just needs to be noted that a shot in the trailer pictures Harry in directly in front of a sign that reads ‘the bitch is back.’ Pretty sure that one speaks for itself.

On top of all this, Kingman: The Golden Circle has a brilliant score and soundtrack, top-notch action scenes, and a realistic plot in relation to human behavior. The film is funny, depressing, inspiring, and simply: a damn good time. If you are a fan of the original film it’s pretty much guaranteed (obviously with some exceptions) that you will also love The Golden Circle.
Kingsman: The Golden Circle Trailer