Will the Circle Be Unbroken?

We watched Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017) because we had so much fun with the first movie. Maybe we should have known better.

It starts with Eggsy (Taron Egerton) getting attacked by a baddy from the first movie (?). There's a great car chase through London, and he "wins", but the bad guy's cybernetic arm hacks into the Kingsmen's system through Eggsy's car. The information is passed to druglord Poppy Adams (Julianne Moore), who lives in a 50s-diner-themed compound in Cambodia. Using the information, she launches a missle attack, destroying all Kingsmen, except Eggsy and techie Merlin (Mark Strong).

They open the last-chance all-hope-lost safe, and find a bottle of whiskey inside. OK, that makes sense. But then they realize that this is Kentucky whiskey made by the Statesmen distillery - they must be the American counterparts to the Kingsmen. So it's off to America.

The Statesmen are run by Jeff Bridges, codename Champagne, Channning Tatum: Tequila, Pedro Pascal: Whiskey, and Halle Berry, Ginger Ale. They also discover that Colin Firth, Galahad from the last movie, was not revived by Statesmen technology, but with total amnesia. They soon find out what the Golden Fang, er Circle's plan is: Moore has poisoned the world's supply of illicit drugs, and will only release the antidote in exchange for total decriminalization, worldwide. A cute twist is that several government officials, and Channing Tatum (a bit of a bad boy in the agency) start showing symptoms of the toxin.

Throughout this, Eggsy is still dating Hanna Alstrom, the Swedish princess he saved and sexed at the end of the last movie. I liked this a lot, because it was kind of a throw-away - the girl James Bond beds at the end of the mission, who you never see again. He not only doesn't love her and leave her, he meets her formidable royal parents, and makes a very good impression.

It all leads up to a showdown at the Golden Circle compound. Moore has been keeping Elton John a captive there, forcing him to play for her amusement - lots of "Crocodile Rock". Funny, after Spice World, this is the second movie in a row with an Elton John cameo.

Although it was a lot of fun, I think this sequel was missing something. Maybe it was just surprise - the original had a lot of flaws, it's just that you didn't care because it was all so new. This one, the same muddled plot, odd pacing, fuzzy characterization are there, along with the amazing action and oddball premises, but now we are expecting more. And I don't think we get it. We do get some styling western wear, though.

So what's the sequel? EU spies? Russian? I'm guessing Chinese, so there can be some kung fu action (and that big foreign box office).