Kingsman: The Golden Circle Movie Review

Kingsman: The Golden Circle Movie Review
A; Action/Adventure/Comedy
Cast: Taron Egerton, Mark Strong, Jeff Bridges, Edward Holcroft, Julianne Moore, Colin Firth, Halle Berry, Channing Tatum, Elton John, Vinnie Jones, Sophie Cookson, Pedro Pascal, Hanna Alström
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Rating:

Taron Egerton in Kingsman: The Golden Circle. Picture Courtesy/Film's official Twitter account

This particular franchise-style comic-book turned espionage thriller, in it's second outing, aims to net in what it earned in the first outing, and more.. but the cheeky attitude and the spoofy takes on Bond appear to have lost it's effervescent fulsome appeal somewhat, this time round.

The privatized law-enforcement security service outfit Kingsman, operating out of a high-end tailor's shop, with a lot of high-tech weaponry and convoluted protocol, find their headquarters destroyed and the world held hostage. The spies from Kingsman find new allies in a spy ring from the United States known as Statesman and together they battle a ruthless enemy. Of course, Eggsy Unwin (Taron Egerton), the lower-class bloke trained in espionage, combat and sartorial style in the first outing by gentleman spy Harry Hart (Colin Firth) has already taken on his mentor's mantle, given that Hart was presumed dead towards the end of the first outing.

This sendup doesn't quite 'Kick-Ass' the way it did previously and the plot that hinges on tainted drugs engineered by Poppy (Julianne Moore taking over from Samuel L Jackson) boss of the Golden Circle, the world's No. 1 drug cartel -that has the potential to kill all the world's numerous substance abusers, is a little too whacky and up-in-the-air to be considered overtly lethal. While this outing is as callous, nihilistic and innately sexist in it's expanse, it's definitely not all charming or exciting given that the run-time extends to an unnecessarily bloated 141 mins of animated spectacle that doesn't appear real or plausible for that matter. Preposterous action continues to be the hallmark of this series and each action sequence here (from the opening car chase in London at night) goes steadily over-the-top in it's efforts to provide the audience with adrenaline gushing elements but the experience of it is entirely visceral. While you might be briefly fascinated to behold the spoofy onscreen antics on display here, it's not something that will hold your attention for long. The narrative is basically a gushing parade of nonsense, silly, showy pyrotechnics presented with sly effrontery and irksome guile.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle trailer