The Sunday Mail
This has certainly not been the best year for me as far as cinema is concerned.
Yes, there have been some highs – such as my close buddies Adoration Bizure and Bryan Bwititi making their mark on the local front.
“IT” was a sublime piece of art, “Spiderman – Homecoming” lived up to the hype, and Danai Gurira truly made Zimbabwe proud with a sizzling performance in the Tupac Shakur bio-pic “All Eyez on Me”.
But the lows outnumbered the highs.
For starters, I am yet to come to grips with how Gal Gadot has been heralded as a “second coming” after “Wonder Woman”.
It was a good movie,yes, but it is overrated.
DC Comics continued to disappoint and the recently released “Justice League” movie could have huge implications on this Warner Brothers project.
The “Avengers – Infinity Wars” trailer is out and movie aficionados have been blown away, which is the complete opposite of the colossal disappointment that is “Kingsman – The Golden Circle”.
The movies is the sequel to the 2014 critically acclaimed “Kingsman – The Secret Service”, a film that really brought out the genius of director Matthew Vaughan.
The film introduced us to a brand new style of violence, visual effects and solid storytelling, grossing over US$94 million at the box office.
But the sequel has worked really hard to undo all that.
Some of the beloved characters from the first movie do not last 20 minutes in part two. Admittedly, one of them gets a heroic and befitting end but still – disappointing.
Collin Firth’s Harry Hart/Galahad character almost instantly ruins things; and with this trailer, the marketing department really did a disservice by revealing crucial plot points.
We are also introduced to the British secret service’s American cousins “The Statesmen”.
It doesn’t really help that the film totally wastes A-listers like Channing Tatum, Halle Berry, Jeff Bridges and Pedro Pascal
And we get yet another bland protagonist, though Samuel L Jackson surely is more entertaining than Julianne Moore.
Now for the few merits.
Taron Egerton (Eggsy Unwin), Mark Strong (Merlin) and especially Firth (Harry) give outstanding performances with the weak material handed to them, making lemonade out of the lemons Vaughan gave them.
But there is no escaping it, “Kingsman – The Golden Circle” is utterly childish!
