Kingsman: The Golden Circle

Rating

Director

Matthew Vaughn

Screenplay

Jane Goldman, Matthew Vaughn

Length

2h 21m

Starring

Taron Egerton, Julianne Moore, Edward Holcroft, Mark Strong, Colin Firth, Pedro Pascal, Halle Berry, Jeff Bridges, Channing Tatum, Elton John, Hanna Alstrom, Sophie Cookson, Poppy Delavingne, Bruce Greenwood, Emily Watson

MPAA Rating

R for sequences of strong violence, drug content, language throughout and some sexual material

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Review

In cinema, plausibility has always helped root dramas and comedies in reality. They make these adventures relatable. Even in fantasy films, there are allegorical elements that tie everything together. In Kingsman: The Golden Circle, and less so its predecessor, the realm of plausibility is confined to the absolute barest moments.

Continuing where the original film, Kingsman: The Secret Service, left off, Eggsy (Taron Egerton) has moved in with the Swedish diplomat (Hanna Alstrom) he bedded at the end of the first film. While he loves her and cares for her, his ability to commit and separate the hyper-sexualized reality of being a superspy from his home life is becoming strained and only through understanding who he is and why he loves her can he effectively give her the life she wants.

There’s little in this film that gives that storyline much breathing room. It’s relegated to the background as the more fantastical elements take seed. In reality, the world is on the brink of annihilation once again as a deranged drug queenpin (Julianne Moore) wants her brilliant business acumen to be recognized by the world at large. Her concocted plan is to poison the world’s populace with her drugs and then threaten to let them all die if the world’s governments don’t pass laws making all drug use legal.

Like with the original film, the plot is a dastardly perversion of a very pertinent topic. In the previous film, it was about stopping Climate Change while here it’s about legalizing drug use. Both topics have prominent liberal supporters, but the degrees to which each of these masterminds go is far beyond any decision or invective those on the left would ever consider.

The problem for Eggsy and the rest of the Kingsmen is that Poppy (Moore) is familiar with their operations thanks to Kingsman reject Charlie (Edward Holcroft) feeding her the necessary information to destroy them. After a rather brilliantly orchestrated car chase through the streets of London, Charlie obtains the necessary material to take out everyone in Kingsman with the exception of Eggsy and Merlin (Mark Strong), their resident tech genius.

Expanding the roster of characters, an emergency plan is revealed that sends Eggsy and Merlin to Kentucky where their American counterparts, the Statesmen, are waiting to question their purposes and ultimately aid them in saving the world. Codename Whiskey (Pedro Pascal) ultimately joins them in the field while Merlin’s counterpart Ginger Ale (Halle Berry) assists them from headquarters. As the plot unravels and anything becomes possible, including Poppy keeping Elton John prisoner, we’re treated to increasingly ludicrous plot twists and visual pizzazz as we rumble towards a predictable conclusion.

What set the original film apart was its utterly ludicrous plot and sensational action set pieces. The Golden Circle employs a number of these conceits and makes for a mostly enjoyable adventure. The problem is that there’s little new under the sun and the film feels like it’s struggling to maintain its creative juices as it goes along. That’s even more pointedly clear when you come across two relatively egregious story elements that frustrate on a fundamental level.

Being a hyper-stylized version of the James Bond films, there are certain elements to those films that have been carried forward rather frustratingly. Bond often found himself in the thrall or various women, seducing and bedding a number of them. So, it should come as no surprise that a central set piece in the middle of this film involves a tryst at the Glastonbury Music Festival, setting off a tense relationship conflict with Eggsy and his girlfriend. That scene, which involves an implanted tracking device is crassly sexist and is not supported by nor genuinely necessary to the plot. It isn’t the result of the scene that’s the problem, but how it objectifies and sexualizes a woman unnecessarily that’s the problem.

As the The Golden Circle progresses, it also becomes painfully obvious that although this pair of films have tried to lay claim to being modestly progressive in terms of inclusivity, the fact that the Kingsmen and the Statesmen are dominated entirely by straight white guys, adding in a token woman to the Kingsman program and a black woman as the Statesman tech guru only draws attention to how conservative the film is as a whole.

The actors are obviously having fun with the material, especially Moore, who seems to delight in her decadence and villainy, but Firth as an amnesiac and Berry as a techie don’t seem to care much what goes on around them as they are seemingly refusing to dial in much of a performance. Even Elton tries his best to play to the rafters and in a film as hyper-realistic as this, the rafters are where you want to be and too few of the performances seem interested in getting there.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle wants the audience to relate fondly to the James Bond films of old, modeling itself in an unrealistic way on those films and targeting white males as its primary viewers. That the film doesn’t seem to care that the model of spy thrillers being used is antiquated and has since been updated and modernized is problematic. This is a film that reaches a young male audience in ways that other films cannot and by refusing to renovate itself and expose those young minds to new, open-minded ideas, it risks building a generation who raise folk like Michael Bay onto a pedestal as fine purveyors of realistic depictions of women and minorities and that’s a huge problem.

Oscar Prospects

None

Review Written

October 19, 2017