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... (19/12/2017)

Kingsman goes America! Given the stupidity of its premise and particular details reminiscent of Wild Wild West, this movie is surprisingly high-quality fun. Epic locations, stellar casting, a fast pace, a shitload of filmmaking ideas and especially witty pop-culture references, proving Matthew Vaughn’s intelligence and ability to reflect the current state of society and audience tastes. (03/10/2017)

I already had problems with the first Kingsman (I thought it was teenage nonsense that doesn’t know the limits of good taste), so it’s no surprise that the sequel didn’t pull me into the cinemas. Actually, I should rate it lower than I am, because it’s clearly weaker than the previous one. But I really don’t give a toss. The Golden Circle is such an uninteresting film that it didn’t even manage to piss me off. Sad. For a moment, I also wanted to complain about how weirdly and poorly the antagonist is drawn, but then I realised that I don’t remember even who was the villain in the first one (and I still can’t recall it!). But I will remember Julianne Moore, so I’ll leave my complaints for another time. :D (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. (25/09/2017)

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)