Welcome to the Kingsman Universe
Just as Eggsy is starting to settle in after thwarting the evil plan of a tech genius, it seems that another villain has taken his place to combat the Kingsman. To give their organization a better chance at succeeding, they target the world-saving spy organization, to rule the drug world without a threat. Lucky for Eggsy and Merlin, they survived the massacre and now they need to find help to stop this cartel, known as The Golden Circle.
***Warning: Spoilers***
This movie was super long, with a run time of 2 hours and 21 minutes. It feels like a few of the subplots that led to the end could have easily been cut to tighten up the overall story. Even with the long run time, some things were left by the wayside. I really like the world-building with the introduction of the Statesmen, allied organization in the U.S., but most of them pretty much disappeared after being introduced. Additionally, there were too many bad guys, that they all ended up being underdeveloped.
Speaking of cutting things, there is a specific scene that could have cut away, way sooner than it did. If you’ve seen this, you know what I’m talking about. Although it’s rated R, I think we go the idea, long before it got too far into it. This may be the shock factor of this film, as compared to the church scene in the predecessor, but I ultimately think that we didn’t need it to go as far is it did.
One thing that I would have liked was the omission of Colin Firth’s appearance in the marketing. Firth plays a main character that dies at the end of the previous movie. Seeing his character on posters and trailers completely ruined his reintroduction in this film.
Although the Statesmen faded into the background for the most part, the one that played an integral role into the film was a big highlight. Pedro Pascal, the whip and pistol wielding agent, had a great character arc. Allied force, suspicious actions, ultimately leading to opposition, was a fun ride. The action scenes that involved him were some of the best throughout the movie.
Like the first one, the movie is filled with stylish and fun action scenes. The opening car chase does set the bar high for the action, but it feels that the rest of the movie didn’t live up to it. This downward momentum along with the several subplots subverted my expectations throughout the movie.
Kingsman: The Golden Circle had big shoes to fill, but it looks like it didn’t quite get the job done with pacing issues and dense story elements. It feels like the world building is setting up this franchise with a sequel, but with how this entry came out, I’m weary of the possibility of that. Fans of the first film may find this passable, but it was a tough film to get through.