Well, you can officially add Kingsman to the list of movies that didn’t need a sequel. When I heard that Kingsman: The Secret Service was getting a sequel, I was ecstatic. I’m a big

fan of spy movies (bonus points if they double as comedies) and I was obsessed with the original, so it only seemed logical that I would like this one as well.

My assumption was incorrect. Kingsman’s plot fails to live up to the genius of its predecessor and the attempts at smoothly introducing a whole new organization falls flat, leaving the audience wanting more from the movie.

This may be confusing, especially for those who missed out on the first movie. The basic plot of Kingsman: The Golden Circle is this: after losing almost all of their employees in an attack from an enemy organization, the remaining agents of the British intelligence agency must attempt to go on.

While mourning their fallen comrades, they find a clue in a bottle of whiskey that leads them to America. Here, the Americanized hillbilly version of the Kingsman, named Statesman, reside.

In the first movie, the Kingsman organization was interesting because there was nothing else like it. The introduction of the Statesman felt forced, like they were trying to appease disgruntled American viewers that were upset with the “British-ness” of the first movie.

Then, Kingsman: The Golden Circle movie barely used the Statesman agents. Channing Tatum, a well-known actor that was in every advertisement was in the movie for what felt like five minutes and Jeff Bridges, who played the president of the American organization, experienced the same.

The few scenes that Bridges was in held almost no relevance to the rest of the movie and only acted as filler scenes. Why introduce this new organization and use these big name actors if you’re not going to utilize them?

While the Statesmen weren’t very interesting, the movie’s villain, Poppy, more than made up for it. As the leader of an international drug cartel, she was just the right levels of manic and evil genius. Her idea of how to bring the world to its knees was also very cool – poison all of the drugs that she supplies and then creates the only antidote.

As an action movie, Kingsman: The Golden Circle was perfectly acceptable. As a comedy, it was hilarious and didn’t leave the audience wanting more witty humor. If you were looking for a well thought-out plot and character development then you went to the wrong movie.

The reason I disliked it as much as I did, was probably due to my deep love for Kingsman: Secret Service and my disappointment that this sequel did not live up to expectation. If you’ve never seen the first Kingsman, don’t really care about character or plot development, and you like action/comedy movies, then this movie is perfect for you.