Directed by Matthew Vaughn

Starring: Taron Egorton, Colin Firth, Channing Tatum, Halle Berry, Julianne Moore

When Kingsman: The Secret Service first graced our cinema screens everyone was impressed, at something that they didn't expect at all. Based on the comics by Mark Millar (I've met him, really nice guy) we got to see a parody of sorts of the James Bond films, a funny, action driven and colourful film that was very unique. So you can imagine people's excitement for the second instalment, as was I excited for this, with an expansive cast and everything already set up in the last one, the sequel would hopefully be bigger and better. Is it? Nah. Not by a long shot.

Eggsy (Egerton) and Merlin (Mark Strong) of the Kingsman are left alone in the world after villainous drug lord Poppy (Moore) destroys every Kingsman base in the United Kingdom. With nobody else to turn to, they head to Kentucky where they meet and join with the Statesman, the US' equivalent of the Kingsman. Upon finding out that old friend Harry (Firth) is still alive, and Poppy's evil plans are far from over, the agents must work together to stop her before her manufactured virus kills every drug user on Earth.

Let's get the good out of the way. Matthew Vaughn is an incredible director of action and like the previous movie, the action is great. I usually don'y go for action driven films but with something like what Vaughn does, I have to stay. It's fun action, it's quick, it's not generic, it's over the top and that's something really to love. It's also great to see this action combined with some great cinematography - in the form of one shots that look dazzling. They're not as great as some of the ones in the first, like the church scene for example which is amazing - but they're still great here. It's safe to say that The Golden Circle is an entertaining movie, but it does get bogged down - and here's why.

The problem with this instalment is really the lack of innovation. The writing here is horrendous - I don't know how many times I cringed at something that was cliched, it just didn't feel like the same writing we had in the first film. It's lacking, silly and actually quite poor. The writing does no justice for Moore, who is really underused as the main villain. And whilst we're on the subject of underuse, half of the big names you saw in the trailers have nothing to do. Jeff Bridges, Halle Berry and especially Channing Tatum are left with nothing and have bearly any screen time. There are a lot of characters here for sure, but maybe you could have included them in instead of bringing back Harry from the dead - which makes the universe less dangerous. He's a favourite sure, but having someone return from the dead really makes you feel like their are no risks and your favourite characters are always going to be safe - it becomes a massive problem and I for one thought Harry's death in the first film was a good call. It helped develop the other characters. Here? There's none of that.

Pedro Pascal's character is interesting but is given his 'development' in the last fifteen minutes, and it doesn't feel earned at all. There are too many characters and too much the film wants to do that it becomes a problem. It's got stellar performances but it tries to be so much like its predecessor that it falls flat. It's repetitive a lot in it's humour (wait until the third act and you'll know exactly what I mean) and it takes what made the first film great and redoes it - for no reason at all. It's a darn shame too. It feels very lazy in terms of special effects. Green screen is here a whole lot which is fine but come on - you could have at least tried. One scene shows a character talking into a phone box outside Westminster. It's poorly green screened and this happens so much through the course of the film. Could you not at least have gone out and filmed outside Vaughn? As most filmmakers do?

Maybe I'm being too harsh. or maybe I'm not. It's watchable, it's funny at times and the performances and action are great. As I said, it's entertaining. But it's really not worth anything more. It loses the charm the first film had and really has nothing much going for it at all. If you want to see the same action you saw in the first, then you'll get that here, but if you want everything else you loved about The Secret Service, I wouldn't recommend it. Manners maketh meh.

5/10