I went into Kong: Skull Island completely blind. I had no idea that this movie was in anyway connected to Legendary Pictures’ “Monsterverse”, or the recent Godzilla (2014), nor did I realize such a shared universe even existed before watching this movie. Kong: Skull Island is leaps and bounds ahead of the 2014 Godzilla movie. The film differentiates itself by having relatable characters, an A-List cast, and suitably epic monster battles while also having its titular Monster show up for more than ten minutes of the movie. While I was surprised at how much I liked Kong: Skull Island, the film is not without its flaws, namely a lack of character development and an overabundance of characters and subplots.

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Sequels in Hollywood tend to follow the tried and true formula of being “the same, but different.” Kingsman: The Secret Service was a violent breath of fresh air for the spy genre, harkening back to the older, ridiculous Bond films, while having nothing but contempt for the more recent grim iterations starring Daniel Craig. Kingsman: The Golden Circle is, unfortunately, the bad type of sequel; the kind that self indulgently wallows in its predecessor’s footsteps, while only introducing stale ideas and underdeveloped characters. The Golden Circle attempts to mask its flaws with its action and crude humor, but ultimately is a poor, bloated imitation of Kingsman: The Secret Service.

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