«Kingsman: The Golden Circle»

Cinema Wednesdays - Loris S. Musumeci

«We're thinking of a drug cartel, a certain Golden Circle.»

Handsome Eggsy (Taron Egerton) emerges from the «Kingsman» store. It's evening and the place is quiet. As he revels in his elegance in the gleaming reflection of the door, a car drives up, confident. The man getting out seems to know Eggsy. In fact, he asks him to open his cab door for him. Drum roll, and the action begins. The two fight violently. After an intense chase between the high-tech cab and the enemy's vehicles, the hero manages to free himself and rejoin his beautiful companion (Hanna Alström), who happens to be a princess of Sweden.

Everything's going swimmingly: mates, love, the perfect Kingsman secret service camouflage in the back of a prestigious tailor's store. Despite her many dangerous missions, Eggsy never loses her charm, and none of her locks budge. One night, tragedy strikes. A Mafia company hacks into the spy agency's computer systems, and all the Kingsman agents are singled out and killed. Eggsy miraculously escapes the carnage. Mission coordinator Merlin (Mark Strong) also remains alive. The two survivors must not allow themselves to be overwhelmed by emotion, and must see through to the end their commitment: to get their hands on the drug cartel that wants them dead.

No surprises

Kingsman: The Golden Circle is no surprise. In fact, what would have been surprising is if it had. An action film was announced, and so it plays out on screen. All the procedures of the genre are present. The plot is simple, the plot Manichean, the characters shallow, and the ending, very happy. Technically, the cameras shake and move faster than a race car, the shots fly and the clip effects are served up in profusion.

Specific to this type of action film, it aims to be a comedy within the action-comedy sub-genre. In the light of a story that's been seen over and over again, the approach isn't necessarily a success. With looks and attitudes calculated to elicit laughter, at most a slight smile of sympathy appears on the viewer's face. One of the only actors who manages to provoke a few genuine laughs is precisely the one who isn't really one. Elton John, who plays himself, amuses with his ridiculousness and coquettishness mixed with vulgarity.

An easy moral

The moral aspect that Matthew Vaughn would like to deliver in his direction veers completely into facile and pointless moralizing. While the drug users of the Golden Circle are perishing one after the other, the reaction of the President of the United States of America can think of nothing better to undertake than to put the sick inside cages stored in stadiums. Worse still, he laughingly asserts that «all these junkies have to do is die».

Indignant, his advisor, a woman in a suit, flying around sixty, blonde and short-haired - guess the reference! - opposes the puritanical male villain: «Whether they break the law or not, these victims are still human.» She herself ends up in prison. And since everyone already knows the ending before they've seen the film, there's no point in not revealing that a brave young man will say, once cured of the strange drug-induced illness: «I'll never touch that shit again.» Thanks for the lesson, audiences take note.

Forget about it

One protagonist does, however, deliver a few touching lines, on rare occasions, in the incessant 141 minutes of footage. This is Agent Harry, played by the excellent Colin Firth. It's impossible that such a brave actor, the bearer of an Oscar and the great film The King's Speech, He has long since disappeared. Long gone, he is found with amnesia by Eggsy, whose master he once was. Once his memory is restored, he resumes his role as guide, all wisdom: «Just know that having something to lose is what gives life meaning.»

What will be left of the second Kingsman ? Not much, as with the first episode. Entertainment cinema is made in such a way that it plays in cinemas, enjoys relative success, and ends up in the dustbin of history. Perhaps the elegance of the costumes and the fear of drugs will remain.

«Our agents have been trained for peace.»

Write to the author : loris.musumeci@leregardlibre.com

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