Look, I’m not gonna bandy about with words here. You know what you came for when you clicked on this article—six ways that the biggest and baddest Kingsman film yet succeeds and fails in comparison to the original. So grab a glass of brandy and an umbrella, keep calm, and carry the **** on, bruv.
1) Pro—The good. Thank God for Halle Berry’s Ginger.
This bespectacled, brained beauty provided the depth that the otherwise one-dimensional American Statesmen so desperately needed. No offense to those enamored with Stetsons and flask buckles, but without the witty, intellectual, and balancing presence of Ginger, the Statesmen might as well be a circus of acrobatic, cowboy fashion models.
See what I mean?
2) Con—There is no longer a good chance of another sequel.
Too many valuable, even essential characters died in this “Kingsman” instillation. To be perfectly honest, this was one of my biggest setbacks with this movie. I understand that loss is a powerful motivator for a main character, but I have to say—there was just too damn much of it here. New characters were introduced and almost immediately killed several minutes later, and old favorites were obliterated in entirely unsatisfying manners—no final fight, no well-deserved goodbye, no noble sacrifice—just gone. This isn’t to say that I think death is noble or has to be glamorized, but I do believe that in narratives, certain levels of loss has to be earned. In “The Golden Circle”, this level of loss just didn’t feel earned.
Me too, Eggsy. Me too.
3) Pro—The villain, Poppy: irresistibly insane.
While more unhinged, Poppy was also much smarter than the previous villain, saving her grand reveal until after her ace had already been successfully played. Also, director Matthew Vaughn once again used the villain in his film to deliver a scathing diatribe against a perceived injustice in the world. In the first Kingsman film, it was Valentine’s somewhat ironic disdain for excessive wealth and gross over-industrialization and over-population of the earth. In this film, it was Poppy’s disdain for the ugly stigma placed against harmful and harmless drug users alike. Granted, Poppy’s ulterior motive is her own fame and success, but the point still stands. The fact remains that there are those who benefit from medical doses of certain controlled substances, and railing against those people for being weak or morally corrupt makes about as much sense as lowering your arm into a meat grinder. Vaughn keeps his villains complex by justifying their actions with a convincing, compelling reason. Also, I have to mention the delicious irony in the villain's name, if it isn't already clear--Poppy. As in the opium poppy--as in drugs. Yeah. Just wanted to be clear on that one.
4) Con—Poppy is too effective as a villain.
Without revealing too much about the film’s plot, as soon as Poppy unveiled her ultimate scheme, she essentially held a gun to the head of every drug user in the world and demanded ransom—either all forms of drugs will be permanently, globally legalized, or hundreds of millions will die. The only problem with this is that after making herself known to the world as the one responsible, her buyer base would almost immediately disappear, even with global legalization of all drugs. Who would want to buy any product from her, knowing that she could easily make another grand threat of mass murder through drugs again?
5) Pro—Eggsy has come full circle.
We see him truly become Harry Hart’s rightful successor to the title of Galahad in Kingsman. Gentlemanly, restrained, and honorable—plainly and simply put, he is well on his way to becoming the sort of man that his father was before him.
6) Con—Eggsy's darker side.
I don’t know if this is an actual point against Eggsy’s character in this movie, but we see his professional lethality as a Kingsman bleed into a more personal, headstrong, and violent brutality at times. I don’t want to give too much away, but let it be said that Eggsy is definitely motivated by bloody vengeance throughout the course of this film. If left unchecked, this inclination could eventually be his undoing as a Kingsman.
But hey, y’know--
