Kingsman: The Golden Circle

I still like it, but it finally gets going somewhere in the middle (not even thanks to the action scene), then it trots elegantly to the inevitable conclusion. It's still true that Vaughn can serve action on a silver platter without seams, but it's a pity that his provocations no longer have such balls. Only Elton John, who thoroughly did a lot of coke and is fighting for his life, but it’s still not as good as Kingsman: The Secret Service... (18/12/2017)

The taste of the British gentleman is definitely gone, and it's not because Colin Firth spends half an hour dealing with butterflies. It lacks the charm and the zest of the first one, and it’s also less action-packed and more digital. The opening, in particular, is bonkers. Prince Oberyn, otherwise one of the film's best figures, is far from saving the day even with his cool lasso. Don’t bother with another sequel, I’d rather have a spin-off with the American president. (03/12/2017)

It slows the pace less and picks up the pace more to the highest revs and cadence of insane, amazing, terrifying, or just perfectly effective ideas, never stopping for a moment. The boundless adoration of the first part does not apply to me, but I enjoyed it tremendously; maybe that's why I can now build Kingsman: The Golden Circle right next to it. Taron Egerton has also matured as an actor and almost doesn't lag at all behind Mark Strong or even Colin Firth. Again, the oddity and disturbing madness of the villain's Bond-like plan bothers me. Several times I even thought it was rising to almost miraculous places before the blue haze painfully brought me back down to earth. (21/09/2017)

If there was a bit more action and humor, then maybe this sequel could grow on me. But without it, it’s a classic lousy sequel that has an action-filled beginning, ending, but the two hours in between are just a boring stuffing that the movie could do without. The only upside are the actors who are enjoying these roles to the fullest. What’s more, Elton John’s probably not gonna forget this experience for the rest of his life. After I finished watching, I thought that if the movie was half an hour shorter and some of the scenes got a little more work, it could have been a perfect successor of the first one. For example, I like Mark Strong, but some of the moments were plain horrendous. I don’t want to spoil anything, but a certain scene was so upsetting that were I a professional movie critic I would have gotten up and left. But since I’m not a professional critic, I finished the movie. If you’re expecting a crazy story, you’ll be pleased. But know that there’s less action scenes than you’d expect. Even then, it’s pretty good. (24/09/2017)

Vaughn pulls one action finesse after another out of his sleeve (it's nice to see neat contact fights in a big blockbuster, and I don't care that it's actually being constricted by a nifty VFX camera and a clever editor), but if he and Goldman went over the line too much last time, here they are incomprehensibly tame. The rushing of relationships at the expense of building a more meaningful story is terribly futile on all fronts. There’s a bunch of kitsch and sentimentality but without a drop of audacity, subversion, or any will to go more toward boldness. This makes the surprising self-sacrifice seem almost out of place and leaves the empathy barometer at rest. It's a hundred and forty minutes long, with enough plots for three films, but not a single one hits the mark. It’s really all quite boring. I want to conclude a trilogy that will rage for two hours on all fronts, then world peace and contentment will reign. (05/12/2017)