In the sure hands of Vaughn

Film review: Kingsman: The Golden Circle

MANILA, Philippines — Kingsman: The Golden Circle is an entertaining joyride that brings us the further exploits of Eggsy (Taron Everton). Directed and co-written by Matthew Vaughn, I can only venture to surmise that Vaughn is either a massive Elton John fan, or was so excited to have Sir Elton on board that he expanded his role and peppered the film with references to Sir Elton and his music hits. As such, it becomes a little game within the film to capture all these moments, while enjoying the crisp action sequences and labyrinthine storyline that thankfully, does not get in the way of surrendering to the adolescent, comic book approach the film takes.

From the opening sequence when they “resurrect” Charlie (Edward Holcroft) — one of Eggsy’s nemeses from the first film — for a rip-roaring car chase/action sequence, we know we are in the very sure hands of Vaughn. This won’t be the only resurrection in the film; but this opening rivals Baby Driver for this year’s most action-packed, impressive first five minutes of a film.

From then on, it’s only a matter of time before we find Eggsy and Merlin (Mark Strong) picking through the ruins of the Kingsman-Network in London, and flying off to Kentucky to meet their American counterpart, the covert organization known as Statesman — characters portrayed by Channing Tatum, Halle Berry, Jeff Bridges and Pedro Pascal (who may be familiar to those who watched the fourth season of Game of Thrones and/or Narcos).

One can either enjoy or be annoyed by how constantly referential the second installment is to the first film. Either through dialogue, staged scenes or actual flashbacks, we are constantly reminded about the said first film. And the second resurrection of the film, Harry (Colin Firth) is given a wonderful unexpected twist to add texture and emotional anchor to the film. Top heavy with stars, I can only guess that the characters played by Tatum and Berry will have more significant exposure in some future third film as this one basically wastes their presence.

This is especially so in the case of Ginger (Berry), as the female roles of main villain Poppy (Julianne Moore), Princess Tilde (Hanna Alstrom) and even Clara (Poppy Delavigne), all leave more of a mark as we exit the theater.

But back to Sir Elton: From the moment he makes his first appearance, his is a recurring running gag that stitches the film wonderfully. In fact, compared to Samuel L. Jackson’s close-to-crazy villain of the first installment, Moore’s Poppy is a relatively weak arch villain — and the true Queen of this film is clearly Sir Elton! Besides his songs cropping up every so often, we even have the two robot dogs of Poppy being named Bennie and Jet.

Strong’s Merlin is my other standout here and provides the best moment of gravitas in this amusement park spectacle that Vaughn has assembled — violent and smutty in instances, but always with a naughty smile. Do bring on the third installment, as Vaughn gives us enough here to warrant calling this a true franchise film series.