Kingsman: The Golden Circle is an action spy comedy film produced and directed by Matthew Vaughn and Co-written by Vaughn and Jane Goldman. It’s the sequel to Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014), which is based on the comic book series Kingsman, created by Dave Gibbons and Mark Millar.  Like the first one, it’s an extremely violent, over-the- top action movie with comedy elements. This time around though, there’s a bit more empathy placed on human life.

With their headquarters destroyed and a new villain named Poppy (played by Oscar winner Julianne Moore) threatening the world, the Kingsman finds new allies after discovering another spy organization known as The Statesman. Surprisingly after the first trailer had been released, it was confirmed that the character Harry Hart (Colin Firth) who was a mentor to the protagonist, was back despite being killed off in the first film. The Golden Circle is still a spy comedy, but it’s less charming than The Secret Service. The first movie was innovative and had more creativity with in its plot, introducing a new type of nostalgic spy movie that people remembered. The second didn’t have some of that creativity or innovation. Some of the jokes in it were unsettling and unnecessary.  At times it’s fun; at times it’s a bore. The villain Poppy was an interesting character.

It was fun to see this cheery, American sweetheart that at the same time is crazy, intelligent and insane. She was more serious than the villain, Richmond Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson), in the first movie, who was hilarious and high spirited but wasn’t as serious or focused on his motives to rule the world. Overall, Kingsman: The Golden Circle offers more of everything that made its predecessor so much fun, but lacks the original’s wild creative spark. The soundtrack is composed by Henry Jackman who also wrote soundtrack for other action movies such Big Hero 6, X-Men: First Class, the first Kingsman and Captain America Civil War. Cast includes Taron Egerton, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Channing Tatum, Halle Berry and Jeff Bridges.