“Very Good Film, But…”
Thought I’d begin with TL;DR review of the film for your quick viewing pleasure, because those were my words when I left the cinema on Friday night. I’ve been looking forward for this film all month. This, and IT at the beginning of the month, were the two films I absolutely had to see in September. Now that I’ve seen them, I’m truly glad I watched both. The thing with this film is that there is definitely a “But…” to any review you want to give it. Here’s why.
The Setup
It’s been a year since the events of Kingsman: The Secret Service, and much has changed for our heroes. Eggsy (Taron Egerton) is now a major part of The Kingsman, and he’s taken Harry’s title of “Galahad” from the first film. Meanwhile, the other major players from the first film – Merlin (Mark Strong), and Roxy Morton (Sophie Cookson) who passed the test and took the title of Lancelot – are still helping run the show. Eggsy is maintaining his cover as working for Kingsman, the tailors, and just as he’s leaving work he’s attacked by another returning character from the first film, Charlie Hesketh (Edward Holcroft), who’s clearly fallen on hard times since mocking Eggsy during the recruitment process in the first film. That attack leads to a chase through London, and sets into motion a chain of events that puts the movie into its full plot.
While those events are happening, Eggsy goes to dinner with his girlfriend – Crown Princess Tilde of Sweden (Hanna Alström), whom he rescued in the first film – and Eggsy gets Roxy’s help to impress her parents using Kingsman tech to appear far more knowledgeable than he is. However, while he’s having a good time, tragedy strikes and the Kingsman come under attack. Much is destroyed, many lives are lost, and some major characters from the first film disappear. Eggsy and Merlin reunite and set about putting a contingency plan into motion, which turns out to be to head over to the United States and meet Kingsman’s cousin organisation, Statesmen, where they meet the head of the organisation, Champagne (Jeff Bridges), top agents Tequila (Channing Tatum) and Whiskey (Pedro Pascal), and Merlin’s Statesmen equivalent Ginger (Halle Berry). Not long after arriving however they make a shocking discovery: Harry (Colin Firth) is still alive?!
This then begins the identification of the villain of the movie, Poppy Adams (Julianne Moore) and her typically Kingsman over-the-top spy movie plot to blackmail world leaders into doing what she says, or face the consequences. Of course, the only people who can save the day are the new combination of the Kingsman agents and the Statesmen agents, and they team up to save one of their own, bring Harry back into the fold, and save the world for a second time from the clutches of an evil villain.
The Delivery
Let’s start off by saying that if you enjoyed the first film, the sequel is more than worth your time watching. If you didn’t like the over-the-top threat of Samuel L Jackson’s villain in the first one then this “Proper Spy Movie” probably isn’t for you. I don’t know anyone who didn’t adore the first one though, as a real tribute to the old-style spy movies, and thus I was excited to go see the second one with one of my friends AND with my mother, both of whom I paid to come with me because I had every faith this film was going to be fantastic. And it didn’t disappoint. This is a very good film, but while the first film was a hands down GREAT film, this one didn’t quite live up to its predecessor.
I’ll begin by talking about everything that makes this film very good. Where to begin beyond the characters? The characters in the first film jumped out of the movie and were larger than life. That’s true again in the sequel. All my favourites from the first film were back here, with the addition of Tilde returning as Eggsy’s girlfriend, which was just a wonderful addition to the story and provided some genuinely good laughs with him meeting the king and queen of Sweden and needing to impress them, after all he’s “just a tailor”. Eggys and Merlin were great once again, and I was thrilled to see Roxy, aka Lancelot, back as well. Then, when they headed over to the United States to meet the Statesmen, there were no characters here that I disliked either. Their codenames all come from alcohol, so Champagne (aka Champ) was a very good replacement for Arthur in the first (even if you can’t top Michael freaking Cain from the first one), Tequila and Whiskey both fulfilled great roles as the various Statesmen agents, and Ginger was likeable as the American version of Merlin, teaming up with him to solve problems and keep tabs on the team. The biggest addition to the cast was the return of Harry Hart, aka Galahad, which I can tell you all about as it was spoiled in the trailers, but I won’t tell you HOW he comes back.
I will tell you, however, that we all saw Galahad die in the first film, in a massive way in a truly great moment in the first film. The scene where Samuel L Jackson killed him was one of the best in the whole film, and so I was a little worried that his “resurrection” in the sequel would feel hollow. It didn’t. The reasoning for his “resurrection” is very “spy-movie” without doubt, and while it requires an undoubted suspension of disbelief it was reasonable enough that I was happy to accept that it was possible within the confines of the plot, and therefore was thrilled to see Harry back. However, in his resurrection what we get isn’t the same Harry from the first film. That’s a good thing. His character progression here is one of the best things about the sequel, and to see Harry unable to do all he could do in the first film while seeing Eggsy so much further along than in the first film and doing everything Harry was capable of then makes both characters’ story arcs in this film entirely fun and enjoyable. These are the two main characters without doubt, and they’re both on great form, with the actors giving great performances that I truly enjoyed.
The fight scenes in the film also more than live up to my expectations. They are at times outright laugh-out-loud funny, and the packed cinema screening I was in all burst out laughing simultaneously as they reference some of the moments from the first film with a hilarious twist on them. Then there are other action sequences, specifically with the new technology introduced by the Statesmen agents, that are just as watchable – and perhaps even an improvement from – the first film. I genuinely have no complaints about the action here, and the chase sequence to kick off the film, which I mentioned in the Setup covering the plot, brings you straight into an action sequence to kick things off, which was very good, very fun and wasted no time in setting things up before delivering the Kingsman brand of comedy and action. There’s even a fight sequence including this films’ special guest – while in the first film we had an awesome cameo by the one and only Mark Hamill here we have an equally brilliant and hilarious appearance by Sir Elton John – which is once again one of the highlights of the film. Elton John is honestly great in this film, and I give him full credit for being able to laugh at himself and make fun of himself as much as he does here.
Then we get to the slight downsides of the film. The first, and most significant downside, if the villain. Where Samuel L Jackson’s character from the first film was absolutely on form the whole time, and his character was one of the things that made the film as great as it was, this time the villain – played by Julianne Moore – is a lot less compelling. She’s almost too over the top and “crazy” at times, and her whole character just seems too out of place when compared to Samuel L Jackson’s in the first film. I feel like if the roles were reversed, if Julianne Moore had been the character of Richmond Valentine in the first film, and Samuel L Jackson had been the character of Poppy Adams in the second, then the film may have had a better villain, because I feel like Samuel L Jackson could have pulled off this “eccentric villain” role better than Julianne Moore does, but that isn’t to say that she’s by any means a terrible villain. There are parts of the film that I really liked her character, and the later in the film we get the better she seems, especially when interacting with the main characters, rather than doing the setup of her evil scheme by herself and with her supporting villain characters.
The other downside here is the story. Again, I think that’s brought down by the quality of the villain, and I feel like if Samuel L Jackson had played the bad guy here then the over-the-top nature of the villain here would have made for a brilliant role, whereas Julianne Moore just couldn’t really pull off the eccentric enough role to make the plot work for me. Plus, for some reason she relies on robots rather than human beings or dogs, which did ultimately pay off into a VERY good scene (again involving Elton John) but in the first few scenes involving them seemed a little weird and out of place. Overall the plot was ultimately just to drive the characters forward however, and the progression of the characters more than makes up for the slightly lacking plot of the movie, as Eggsy, Harry and Merlin all have brilliant arcs throughout the film that, if you enjoyed the characters in the first film, will feel genuinely like natural progression of those characters in the sequel. The comedy is very good again, perhaps not as great as the first but certainly very good, and as already stated there are several “laugh out loud” funny moments in the film that the packed cinema I was sitting in all had people genuinely laughing at, which made the moments seem even better when you hear everyone having the same reaction.
The Verdict
If you want to know more about the way I rate films, check out my new post explaining exactly that. That can be found by clicking here: The Verdict: Ranking Systems
Unfortunately, I do have to say that while the original was a great film, this one only earns my “Very Good” rating. It is a very good film though, and well worthy of being a sequel to the original, but in so many ways it just can’t live up to the plot and the villain of the first film. I don’t want to put the blame squarely on Julianne Moore for that, but I do feel like a different actor may have been able to make that “over-the-top” villain role more compelling, as I have to say Samuel L Jackson did to perfection in the first film.
Rating:
Very Good
Go See It In The Cinema
If you liked the first film, go see this film in the cinema. I promise that, as long as you don’t go in expecting it to top the first film, you’ll have a genuinely good time, some good laughs, and you won’t feel like you wasted your money. The film has it’s problems without doubt, and it suffers from the problems so many sequels have of trying to live up to the first ones, but when it comes to sequels it’s amongst the better sequels I’ve seen to films that have blown me away with the first one, so I’d recommend you watch it, you enjoy it, and you tell me afterwards what you thought.
If you want to tell me, feel free to do so. I’m always easy to get hold of on Twitter (@AlexisEbdon) or on Facebook (Facebook.com/ajebdon). Let me know what you thought, tell me films you would recommend me seeing, and what you think of this review.