BurtonReviews Kingsman The Golden Circle: Shaken, and Pumped Full of Speed
(Image sourced from https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/4485568/mark-strong-kingsman-the-golden-circle-elton-john-cameo/)
Matthew Vaughn,
the great kick starter of franchises. The man you go to when you want a
stylish, action packed and compelling open to your movie franchise. He did it
with the introduction of the new, younger X Men cast with First Class, he did
it with a pop culture shocking result with the first Kick Ass film and its
record for most goons killed by a katana wielding primary school kid with a
fouler mouth than anyones inappropriate uncle, and he did it with Kingsman, the
movie that cranked all the kooky tropes from spy movies of-old to 11 in a
literal mind blowing spectacle. But while Mr Vaughn is an incredible director
and surely could lead any one of these franchises to furious glory, he never
sticks around for the sequels, why is th…what? He stuck around and is directing
the sequel to Kingsman: The Golden Circle…well that ruins my intro abit doesn’t
it…so now I guess all we can ask is, is it good that he stayed or are franchise
openers simply his thing, and an encore just isn’t? Let’s find out.
(Video sourced from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdCZrIwqjas)
The story of
Kingsman: The Golden Circle lets us catch back up with everyone’s favourite
chav turned suave super-spy, Eggsy (Taron Egerton). Gone are his troubles as he
is now living the high-life, cool thrill filled spy missions, comrades he trusts
with his life surrounding you, and a serious girlfriend waiting for him when he
gets home, it really can’t get much better from here. Ah, well wouldn’t it be a
shame if a maniacal drug running boss with a flare for 50s Americana
First off,
from the second the movie kicks in with a frantic and eye-popping battle, it is
an absolute pleasure to be back in this zany and larger than life universe of impossible
gadgets and too cool for spy-school agents. It’s a testament to both the
writing of the characters and the charismatic performances done by the actors
that bring said writing to life that when each key and beloved member of this
super-secret arse-kicking agency was reintroduced, I felt a genuine happiness
to see their image don the silver screen again
From Taron
Egerton’s pitch perfect performance as Eggsy to where he just is the snarky,
Londoner boy who was thrust into this high velocity life and is loving every
moment of it with a cheeky smile permanently perched on his face, to the
hilarious but seriously good at his job I.T. support, Merlin, played by Mark
Strong, who too walks the line of his character perfectly, hitting every beat
of his dry wit and just really making you want to grab a beer with this
stand-up licensed to kill agent.
(Image sourced from http://thepeoplesmovies.com/2017/08/say-goodbye-new-kingsman-golden-circle-tv-spot/)
Their infectious
charisma alone is already a delight to watch run, slide and explode their way
through the world around them, but on top of that, having their witty and brother
like banter shape their just down right entertaining dynamic cemented that the
characters and performances of Kingsman are one of the biggest strengths of the
franchise.
All of this
praise can also be given to the new cast brought to the film from across the
pond. While most of the incredible casting of this movie was disappointingly
wasted, as most of the characters took an unsatisfying back seat to a point
where you wonder what was even the point of them being introduced, the
performances given for the short time they were on screen were just as lovable
and entertaining as the returning casts. From Channing Tatum’s deeply American
shot-gun toting “resident bad boy” of the Statesman, to Halle Berry’s American reflection
of Merlin, and Pedro Pascal as Whiskey who got the most screen time out of the
new cast and was allowed to show off the most as he completely and
unrecognisable hid his natural accent under a deep layer of southern American
grit as a high tech and deadly skilled cowboy of the modern day.
Speaking of
showing off, I think that is exactly what Matthew Vaughn is doing with the mind
boggling and undeniably freakin’ awesome action scenes of Kingsman. The way in
which he has the camera move, to where you feel like you are part of every
punch thrown and painful fist to the gut gives a frantic, high octane atmosphere
to every single one of his fight scenes. Whether it be a high speed chase, all
out brawl, or weapons of mass destruction (that can easily fit in your suit
case or umbrella) stand off, each set piece is filled with something that
catches your attention and makes you audibly gasp in awe “coooool”. Whether it
be a intricate and unbelievably epic set of tightly choreographed high speed
kung-fu moves, some new bonkers tech that’s just so outlandish that it works in
this universe, or the new spin on filming actions scenes that Vaughn has, your
eyes are always left wide and darting across every inch of the screen as you
want to and need to take in every second of yet another uniquely Vaughn and
uniquely cool fight. Seriously, I have no idea how he films them, or edits them
to look and feel so cool, and I really, really want to know.
(Image sourced from https://www.technobuffalo.com/2017/04/25/kingsman-golden-circle-trailer/)
But sadly
for Kingsman the Golden Circle
Take the villain
as the first example. In the first Kingsman, Samuel L. Jackson and Sofia Boutella
were a perfectly devious pair for the Kingsman to go up against. One was quirky
and a joy to watch play around on screen, the other was a cool, mysterious and
deadly meaningful physical force for Eggsy, our new recruit, to go up against. But
in The Golden Circle we get a nostalgia loving Drug lord business woman, Poppy
(Played by Juliann Moore), and the return of Charlie (Edward Holcroft). The
problem with this new set of villains is they were just lacklustre. Poppy’s
quirks of loving 50s Americana
And the
problem with Charlie’s return was that, while it was fun to see him again at
first, he simply paled in the sleek shadow left behind by Boutella. Plus, we
saw how much of a pompous wimp he was in the first movie, and that Eggsy could
beat him, so he never felt like a true threat to the tailor spies. Sure it was
satisfying to see him get pummelled in the back seat of a currently being shot
at taxi, but that can only go so far.
(Image sourced from http://za.ign.com/kingsman-the-golden-circle/108975/preview/kingsman-the-golden-circle-footage-reaction)
Another
aspect that the sequel failed to capture that made the first Kingsman so
successful and fun was how initially the film is routed in a relative sense of
reality. This initial grounding makes the ridiculous gadgets and over the top
good Vs evil plot seem all the more fantastic and unique. But in the sequel,
they seemingly forgo what little remnants of reality this universe has and dive
abit too deep into the ridiculous. With all too fake looking CGI killer robot
dogs, and a kidnapped Elton John being main plot points of the movie, you loose
a lot of the tension that is needed for the emotional or death defying scenes. Without
that tension, you’re left feeling like this is simply an over the top, bright
and ridiculous cartoon, and in that mind set, things don’t seem to matter that
much. This was a mindset I couldn’t shake for the majority of the movie and it grievously
affected the impact of the film’s most emotional and pivotal scenes as I knew
that I should be caring right now, but I just didn’t.
Speaking of
just not caring, oh boy were the sub plots of this movie dreadful. From the
cringe inducing Elton John scenes to the sequel’s effort to make the worst joke
of the first movie into an actual serious plot, so much time of The Golden
Circle is wasted on developing plots that were unbearably bad to watch that I
just wanted to end as fast as possible.
But the main
plot wasn’t all that compelling either, while the inciting incident to set
Eggsy off on this globe-trotting adventure is strangely brutal but very
compelling, after that the movie loses steam fast as you get bounced around
from country to country, set piece to set piece, where I’m sure there was rhyme
and reason as to why, but the movie just didn’t give me a reason to be
interested in the reasons; and so the events of the movie just seemed to wash
over me until I was pricked back awake by Egerton’s incredibly charismatic performance,
or another of Vaughn’s stellar fight scenes.
(Image sourced from http://www.nme.com/news/film/first-full-trailer-kingsman-golden-circle-unveiled-2058806)
But what I think
is the biggest problem with this Kingsman sequel is that they swapped out the
heart of the original for cheap jokes and laughs. The first film was naturally
funny, the second feels like its making jokes, and it is really trying to make
them. What’s even worse is that most of the forcefully made jokes weren’t even
that funny, the exact opposite in fact. Every Elton John gag made me
uncontrollably cringe, whilst most of the others made me mildly chuckle, but
ultimately sad because I know this franchise can do better, we’ve all seen it
in the first one. But it kept happening, again and again, any build in emotion
or cool moment was utterly deflated by a cheap grab for laughs or a forced plot
point they added in just because.
But one
element that did carry over from the original film was the god-awful CGI. My only
criticism of the first film was the immersion shattering CGI but it was
thankfully used relatively sparingly to other big blockbusters of its time. In The
Golden Circle though, the CGI is plentiful and just as bad. From janky robot
arms that at times look pasted onto the actors arm, to those terrible killer
robot dogs that look like they were made on a TV show’s budget rather than a
blockbuster franchise’s one, I was constantly being ripped out of the experience
to a point where I just didn’t try to get back in.
So yeah, I
really wanted to like this movie, the trailer looked like bags of fun and
returning to this bonkers, stylish and cool as hell world is appealing to
anyone that saw the original, and I think it still can be. Whilst the useless and
plain bad sub plots, forced gags and lack of any real sense of tension ruined
this movie for me; the frantic and seriously damn epic fight scenes, and the loveable
characters being played by these talented actors remained intact in The Golden
Circle and are more than enough to warrant another stab at getting that perfect
literal mind blowing head shot that the first movie achieved so, so many times.
Like seriously, so many heads exploded in that movie, it was insane. Ah the
good old days.
Kingsman the
Golden Circle
Why not check out my YouTube channel, BurtonReviews,
where I upload awesome gaming montages put to badass songs or scores every Sunday.
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbUfnyezvQsVsDgN3TGRh1Q
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