Kingsman: The Golden Circle is a Summer Blockbuster in September (Review)

Mark Miller

7 years ago

I’ve been looking forward to seeing Kingsman: The Golden Circle since I first saw the trailer for it. Could it live up to the first Kingsman? Hard to say, but Channing Tatum as a cowboy is reason enough to get me to see anything. The very idea leaves me a little out breath. Kingsman: TGC knew exactly what it wanted to be; it has a formula and that formula was followed. And to good effect: even at an 2 hours, 21 minutes, Kingsman: TGC did not feel too long.

When their headquarters are destroyed and the world is held hostage, the Kingsman’s journey leads them to the discovery of an allied spy organization in the US. These two elite secret organizations must band together to defeat a common enemy.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle is good fun. It’s a little funny, has a lot of action and is nice to look at. It’s the very definition of a summer blockbuster, though technically this premiered one day after summer ended (you rebels, you). This is exactly what you’d get if James Bond took itself a little less seriously. There’s the gadgets, the supervillains with their bizarre schemes and a loose grasp on the laws of physics – it’s a winning combination. And of course the good suits and lessons in manners. I loved the world of Kingsman and I thought the Statesman was a wonderful addition to their universe.

I did like all the casting – Colin Firth was wonderful, Taron Egerton is wonderful and hot, as was Edward Holcroft (what a bad boy). I liked Halle Berry but not her hair. I loved Jeff Bridges, he does the absolute perfect gruff old cowboy. There wasn’t enough Channing Tatum. Admittedly, there could never BE enough Channing, but really, he could have done with more screen time. Julianne Moore was fabulously nefarious as a villain and so familiar but I didn’t recognize her without a thick Boston accent and proximity to Alec Baldwin. And of course, Elton John. It was clear in watching these folks that this movie was a lot of fun to make.

I’m not sure this movie will age well. Some of its appeal seems to come from somewhat current (or even outdated) events and the current political climate, which (hopefully) will not make sense for much longer. I can’t really get into it without spoiling it, but let’s just say there would be some states (and Canada next year) that might have been left out of this plot entirely. There were some strange tonal moments throughout. Also not all all of the callbacks to the previous film worked, some didn’t and they just moved on.

So is Kingsman: The Golden Circle worth watching? Yes it’s loads of fun. I’m not sure it’s worth the price of full admission (translation: Channing Tatum’s shirt stayed on) but it was worth the time it took to watch it. I’m not sure I’d go out of my way to see this one again, but I’m still looking forward to the next one.

Rating: [star rating=”3.5″]