Kingsman is back with an all new installment, The Golden Circle. A sequel that would be all the more welcome if it did a better job of enhancing the rich world constructed by the film that preceded it.

To be fair, it’s really hard to top the excellence of Kingsman: The Secret Service. The first installment offered a languorous introduction to the rich layered characters; my favorites include Eggsy (Taron Egerton) and Harry Hart aka Lancelot (Colin Firth). The original villains were fantastic eccentric characters that played on 007 villains with a modern twist; but as you know, they died at the end of the first one (spoilers?). The first Kingsman introduced us to a tougher, more Kick-Ass Colin Firth. These concepts are hard to top; they were done with such grace, style and panache – like the spy films that they referenced as touchstones.

Welcome to Kingsman: The Golden Circle, the fight scenes are still well choreographed but very, very heavy on the CGI. In this installment, all of The Kingsman headquarters around the world are sabotaged and they are forced to meet their american cousins — The Statesmen. Quick interjection; The Statesmen have the worst spy code names, Whiskey, Tequila, Ginger Ale . . . really? We have a new super villian; Julianne Moore, playing a sickeningly saccharine sweet drug cartel boss with robot dogs. There is a fantastic surprise that is artfully played throughout the final half of the film Eggsy is just as magnetic and gives a whole-hearted performance; Colin Firth is still smashing in his suit. The story introduces a strong morality lesson about the War on Drugs. It’s a great idea, but falters slightly in execution. Overall it’s fun and worth a watch just to languor in Taron Egerton’s presence. He really needs to be utilized in more movies beyond this franchise.