Kingsman: Złoty krąg

I already had problems with the first Kingsman (I thought it was teenage nonsense that doesn’t know the limits of good taste), so it’s no surprise that the sequel didn’t pull me into the cinemas. Actually, I should rate it lower than I am, because it’s clearly weaker than the previous one. But I really don’t give a toss. The Golden Circle is such an uninteresting film that it didn’t even manage to piss me off. Sad. For a moment, I also wanted to complain about how weirdly and poorly the antagonist is drawn, but then I realised that I don’t remember even who was the villain in the first one (and I still can’t recall it!). But I will remember Julianne Moore, so I’ll leave my complaints for another time. :D (21.09.2017)

Kingsman goes America! Given the stupidity of its premise and particular details reminiscent of Wild Wild West, this movie is surprisingly high-quality fun. Epic locations, stellar casting, a fast pace, a shitload of filmmaking ideas and especially witty pop-culture references, proving Matthew Vaughn’s intelligence and ability to reflect the current state of society and audience tastes. (02.10.2017)

I like the first Kingsman, I like Matthew Vaughn, I like movies that aren't afraid to go their own way and have fun with an extremely violent scene in which Colin Firth dispatches a church full of religious fanatics. The director of this action flick hasn't given me any reason to doubt his abilities so far, so I was looking forward to the second installment, but alas, this time Vaughn stumbled. Or rather, it looks like he doesn't care where he steps. The Golden Circle is almost two and a half hours long, has about three action set-pieces (one great, one decent, and one pointless), but completely disappoints in its handling of the new characters. The Statesmen don't impress much, the main villain and her devious plan are quite a sad sight to behold, and it all lacks the lightness, wit and quirkiness of the first film. This one managed to be cool and engaging in every other scene. It's awful to see them trying to do the same thing this time around, and it rarely works. Otherwise, it's mostly talk, everyone is serious, and as the minutes go by it becomes more and more clear that this sequel doesn't really have much to offer. Just Vaughn's lucid action, a good Taron Egerton and an excellent Firth. You know that feeling when you have to make tea out of a used bag? That's it. It's still got some flavour, but it was better in every way last time. And if you had to make it a third time, you might want to give it a miss... (27.07.2018)

If there was a bit more action and humor, then maybe this sequel could grow on me. But without it, it’s a classic lousy sequel that has an action-filled beginning, ending, but the two hours in between are just a boring stuffing that the movie could do without. The only upside are the actors who are enjoying these roles to the fullest. What’s more, Elton John’s probably not gonna forget this experience for the rest of his life. After I finished watching, I thought that if the movie was half an hour shorter and some of the scenes got a little more work, it could have been a perfect successor of the first one. For example, I like Mark Strong, but some of the moments were plain horrendous. I don’t want to spoil anything, but a certain scene was so upsetting that were I a professional movie critic I would have gotten up and left. But since I’m not a professional critic, I finished the movie. If you’re expecting a crazy story, you’ll be pleased. But know that there’s less action scenes than you’d expect. Even then, it’s pretty good. (24.09.2017)

Vaughn pulls one action finesse after another out of his sleeve (it's nice to see neat contact fights in a big blockbuster, and I don't care that it's actually being constricted by a nifty VFX camera and a clever editor), but if he and Goldman went over the line too much last time, here they are incomprehensibly tame. The rushing of relationships at the expense of building a more meaningful story is terribly futile on all fronts. There’s a bunch of kitsch and sentimentality but without a drop of audacity, subversion, or any will to go more toward boldness. This makes the surprising self-sacrifice seem almost out of place and leaves the empathy barometer at rest. It's a hundred and forty minutes long, with enough plots for three films, but not a single one hits the mark. It’s really all quite boring. I want to conclude a trilogy that will rage for two hours on all fronts, then world peace and contentment will reign. (05.12.2017)