Kingsman: The Golden Circle opened in theatres starting September 22 in the US. Released as a sequel to the 2014 Kingsman movie, and based on the comic books by Dave Gibbons and Mark Millar, Kingsman 2 follows Eggsy one year after he brought down a billionaire’s plan to cull the earth’s population.

  Eggsy, an agent for the secret agency Kingsman, is now faced with a new nemesis: Poppy Adams.  Poppy sends an agent to hack the agency, and she destroys all Kingsman headquarters in a matter of minutes, with all those inside.

  Merlin and Eggsy, the only two survivors, follow doom-day procedures which team them up with Statesman, an American counterpart of the former Kingsman agency. After a reunion with amnesiatic Harry, the three work with agent Whiskey to unravel Poppy’s plan.

  Poppy Adams, head of the Golden Circle drug cartel, announces that she laced all drug products with a deadly toxin, and will only give the antidote if the president of the United States stops the war on drugs and allows her immunity.

  The agents work against the clock to retrieve the antidote and defeat Adams before the millions affected succumb to the toxin.

  Although the movie was not supposed to be deep nor thought provoking, it is the sequel to a hilarious, action-packed, and witty stand alone that – after this movie – should have just stood alone.

  For one, the CGI within the film was so extensive that it seemed more was digitized within the movie than filmed.

  So many problems lied within the plot, or lack thereof. By skipping ahead and beginning the movie by killing off most of the characters established in the last film, the director effectively killed off the last plot and the connection to the last movie. The writers could’ve gone anywhere with the film, as the decision to terminate Kingsman left no anchor to the previous plot. It skipped too much and lended to the absurdity presented within the second movie.

  The plot itself was paper thin, and it seemed the characters were riding on humor that was neither here nor there. Although some of the side sequences were unforeseen, the major aspects of the plot were expected from the start – especially when Harry alone suspects a double agent in the ranks.

  There were cracks- or rather holes- in events as well. How is it that a first year agent is only one password away from every document, detail, and location of Kingsman agents, just while in his car?

 The action scenes were incomprehensible, as the camera was shaking non-stop and focused on unimportant pieces of the fight scene. It was the equivalent of watching strobe lights flash again and again.

  The vulgarity characteristic of the previous Kingsman movie was still present, but extended into excess.  Cursing is all well and good when it’s been established in the first movie as a tool for hilarity, but why add cannibalism among other things?  Obscenity has its limits.

  The director then tries to make a political statement – or quite possibly a misguided and unnecessary adversity feature, as agent Ginger Ale seeks to break the glass ceiling that prevents her from moving up from being a tech rat. This isn’t a feel-good movie, so why try and force elements of such in it?

  The most telling of evidence of this movie’s failure is the reliance on Elton John in a feather suit to play a major role in defeating Poppy.

  Lastly, the troubled relationship between Tilde and and Eggsy overarches the whole movie, which wouldn’t be so out of place if there was a focus on their relationship to begin with in the original movie. Why, if there never was portrayed a meaningful relationship, skip over it to get right to its flaws?

  The first Kingsman movie was hilarious, action packed, and quite unique in its style. Although not expected to be a serious or meaningful movie, Kingsman: The Golden Circle still had to live up to the hilarity and action present within the first. It failed completely, as both a sequel and a stand-alone. Scenes that tried to connect it to the first (like the pub scene with the iconic “manners maketh man” line) only amplified this disparity.

  The only features of the movie that kept it intact were Eggsy and Hart (played by Taron Egerton and Colin Firth, respectively). These actors played their characters well and acted on a level entirely separated from that of the rest of the movie.

  Characters Eggsy and Merlin may have survived Poppy’s attack, but the Kingsman movies’ success certainly ended with the initial bombing of the Kingsman HQ.