Impressed by director Matthew Vaughn’s prior efforts with the “Kingsman” films, I was plenty ready to enjoy this film. Each of the cast members has done impressive work elsewhere and the premise of an espionage writer seeing some of her plotlines come to life in front of her seemed like a good premise. Nonetheless despite some pretty good sequences, the overall effect is rather too mushy and contrived to overcome its intriguing premise.
It almost seems Impossible that the likes of Henry Cavill, Catherine O’Hara, Bryce Dallas Howard, Samuel L. Jackson, Jason Fuchs, John Cena, Bryan Cranston, Sam Rockwell and even Dua Lipa can’t provide a decent result, but it may have been that we ended up with an embarrassment of riches and a murkiness as a consequence.
The 2 hour plus running time did not help. Certainly, several of the action sequences are clever, and the film generally looks good, despite some sketchy CGI special effects. I also get bummed out when continuity errors are pretty blatant, as is the case here.
But mention must be made of some impressive song placements. Money was certainly spent on securing the rights to “Now and Then,” which is being touted as ‘the last Beatles song.’ Lennon wrote the song circa 1970 and it languished as an unfinished demo for years. The LIverpudlians had to wait for technology to catch up, artificial intelligence was used to separate the original vocals from the instruments so that McCartney and Starr could add their magic, along with some Harrison guitar tracks.
Isn’t it a pity that such a remarkable track is wasted on a pretty forgettable film?
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