Kingsman: The Golden Circle Review

So I just watched Kingsman: The Golden Circle. Not nearly enough Samuel L Jackson in this one.

First off it's definitely not as good as the first one, but for a September action movie it's not awful. Of course I might have thought better of it if it wasn't for the spoileriffic marketing.

I had a few big issues with the movie. The first of which was that it was predictable. Where the first movie had a couple surprises, this movie was pretty much by the numbers. The biggest "surprise" was spoiled super heavily in the trailers in a serious case of Terminator syndrome. The first movie acted as a sort of deconstruction of the spy movie genre whereas this movie seemed content to be a straight up beat for beat spy movie.

Somehow everything seemed dumbed down in this movie. The humor seemed a little too broad, the action a little too computer animated, and the gadgets a little too beyond the suspension of disbelief (nano-machines are not an acceptable plot device). That's not to say the first movie didn't have those moments, they just seemed less egregious.

I don't want it too seem like I hated this movie. I didn't. There were some moments that made me laugh. One recurring character consistently made me giggle. There were the occasional sparks of originality that I enjoyed. And even though most of the action came straight out of a computer they were still more "turn your brain off" fun than a lot of similar films.

If you're looking for some dumb fun you could do a lot worse. I give Kingsman: The Golden Circle 30 out of 52 physics defying stunts.