By Matthew Dillion
Kingsman: The Golden Circle follows the continued exploits of British youth Harry Hart, a member of the secretive Kingsman spy organization. A series of events forces him and the rest of the organization to ally with their cowboy-themed American counterparts, the Statesmen.
Together they must stop the exploits of a drug kingpin (queenpin?) played by Juliane Moore, whose wholesome outlook contrasts with her sadistic tactics. Golden Circle’s story is such a repeat of the first film that it is not a rehash so much as an awkward extension of the original, especially since the film relies heavily on the assumption that you have seen and remember its three-year-old predecessor.
Golden Circle has a star-studded cast, though it seems to have let that get the better of itself. The glut of prominent award winning actors gives it the air of an Oscars skit that refuses to end. An extended, surprisingly plot-relevant cameo in which Elton John plays himself is by far the most egregious example and it feels particularly forced towards the film’s climax.
Golden Circle slings around recognizable characters with such abandon that it feels genuinely wasteful. Halle Berry plays an interesting role that mostly ends up being used for exposition, while Channing Tatum gets about five minutes of screen time before he is literally put on ice. Returning and new characters meet grisly but surprisingly flippant ends, while one very dead character from the original is awkwardly resurrected.
While Harry remains to be a likable character played by a charismatic actor, he suffers from a character arc that concluded last film. Seeing a particularly talented soccer hooligan become a Bond-esque super-agent was one of the first film’s strengths, though the filmmakers were fully aware they could not do it twice.
So, Harry spends most of the film in an awkward limbo, where he is more preoccupied with his relationship troubles than the apocalyptic threat he must stop.
As awkward as the romance plot is, it also represents Golden Circle’s most subtle and effective subversion of the Bond mythos. The Swedish princess that was featured in the last film’s questionable ending is now in a stable, committed relationship with Harry, in stark contrast with the “Bond Girl” trope she was clearly meant to homage.
Where the first Kingsman was a slick callback to the lighthearted Sean Connery era of James Bond films, Golden Circle decided to channel the dreadful Pierce Brosnan era of Bond films. It is chock full of questionable special effects, bizarre transitions, strange editing and cartoonish violence, all of it straight out of Bond’s twilight years.
Its recreational drug use-centric evil scheme at least feels a bit more original than that, though it is also full of hulls and can feel like a particularly elaborate D.A.R.E. PSA.
Despite all of that, Kingsman still at least knows how to have fun. It manages to have a little more heart than the average contemporary cynical, mirthless action movie. Golden Circle lacks the charisma, nostalgia and technical expertise that made the original so endearing, but it is at worst an average film.
