'Kingsman: The Golden Circle' REVIEW: About as fun, funny and violently over the top, but no

'Kingsman: The Golden Circle' is the sequel to Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014) and both of them are directed by Matthew Vaughn who has directed other awesome action flicks such as Kick-Ass (2010) and X-Men: First Class (2011). Back in 2014 when I saw the first Kingsman movie, it was the most fun I've had in a theater in a while up to that point. It had unique boundary-pushing action sequences, a cool satirical edge and a break-out star making performance from Taron Egerton. It was an A+ from me. So naturally, I was excited to see a sequel. Could it be the 'Empire Strikes Back' of the Kingsman movies? Or could it just be a sloppy second? This newest film lies in between, but more towards the earlier.

Taron Egerton return as Eggsy Unwin, who tries to be a fully formed Kingsman agent while juggling the relationship he has with the Swedish Princess Tilde. One night while meeting Princess Tilde's parents, the Kingsman headquarters gets destroyed and now it's up to Eggsy and Merlin (played by Mark Strong) who then have to team up with another secret world saving organization who call themselves the Statesmen. Together, they must stop an evil organization called 'The Golden Circle' run by Poppy Adams (played by Julianne Moore).

So, let's talk about the goods first. Taron Egerton again gives another great charismatic lead performance as Eggsy who really tries hard to maintain his relationship with the princess from the end of the last film as well as trying to be a great Kingsman. In fact, Eggsy and the princess surprisingly do work well off each other and genuinely have romantic chemistry and gives the audiences something to care for when the destructive stuff goes down. All around the performances are great with actors like Mark Strong, Collin Firth, Halle Berry, Channing Tatum, Pedro Pascal and Jeff Bridges. There's cool new characters such as Agent Whiskey played by Pedro Pascal, a Statesman agent with an electrifying whip as a weapon. Julianne Moore makes for an astonishingly menacing and diabolical villain with such an innocent name and she has evil plot which I'd say is as clever in terms of the satirical edge as Samuel L. Jackson's plot from the first. Once again the film boasts a slick and stylish blend of over the top high stakes action and darkly fiendish humor done with the right direction that can only be brought to us by Matthew Vaughn.

What prevents this film from being just as great as the first is that the film does have a bloated feel to it. As you saw from the trailers, Colin Firth indeed does return as his original character Harry Hart. While I think it's great to see his character back, I think his return could've been a lot smoother. When we first see Harry Hart he suffers from intense amnesia and a lot of time is devoted to that sub-plot and does make the film drag in parts. The films does introduce a lot of new characters, but I felt that they weren't utilized as they should've been. You barely see Jeff Bridges, Channing Tatum and Halle Berry. In fact, the other organization 'The Statesman' doesn't do much in terms of contributing to the plot. Not all of them come together in the final act and in the end it does seem like a waste of talent to me. As with any sequel, it doesn't come as close to being as envelope-pushing as the original. I guess this film tried to fix those complaints with the first film by not having a scene as shocking as the church scene from the first. Another thing that this film suffers from is that it felt the need to echo and repeat elements from the first like the henchman of the main villain having a metal limb. In the first movie it's Gazelle with blades for legs, this time it's Charlie (who was in the first film) with a bionic arm. The movie also does deliberately repeat action set-ups, but while having a new twist to it in a couple of areas. What I liked about the first film is that it felt like a love letter to old-school Bond films with familiar music, style and wacky gadgetry. Here, it plays out more like a contemporary comic book film with more over-the-top things like robot dogs and such It was fine for me overall, but I missed the style and music of the previous film.

Overall, I think this newest Kingsman film is just as delightfully fun as its predecessor. The film does feel longer than it is with its 141 minute running time. The new characters that they introduce in the film could have been used more in terms of incorporating them into the plot better. While the novelty of seeing a Kingsman film isn't present anymore, it's still a really good time.

'Kingsman: The Golden Circle' gets a B+