Achieving the impossible task of being over the top and underwhelming at the same time, Kingsman: The Golden Circle is a franchise stopper of a sequel.

Matthew Vaughn likes to turn it up to 11. Whether during his beginnings as a producer on Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, or with his numerous comic book adaptations such as Kick-Ass, Vaughn is all about bigger, badder, and the more taboo, the better. Kingsman: The Secret Service was a perfect case in point. Based on the Mark Millar written comic book, it gave Vaughn the opportunity to merge style and raunch, complete with a massacre in a church and an anal sex joke. It was pure big-budget exploitation entertainment, with a capital R.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle doesn’t come close to the success of its predecessor. Overlong and over stylised, it brings out the worst in this sixth collaboration between Vaughn and screenwriter Jane Goldman, especially in its murky moralising surrounding the “War on Drugs”. The removal of such ignorant preachiness could have saved us at least 30 minutes. Thankfully, a charismatic cast and enough whiz-bang action sequences make up sufficient ground resulting in a tolerable watch at best.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle again follows the adventures of Eggsy (Taron Egerton), superspy extraordinaire for espionage organisation “Kingsman”. When their headquarters are destroyed and the world held hostage by unassuming drug baron Poppy (Julianne Moore), Eggsy and his resurrected mentor Harry Hart (Colin Firth) enlist the help of US spy organisation the “Statesman” to help save the world.

The methods in which they do so is typical for the franchise: lots of graphic violence that despite clear assistance of CGI, have their moments of brilliance. Also typical for Vaughn are moments of repulsion. One particular scene involving an insolent henchman and a meat grinder that would make Hannibal Lector envious, crosses over that line to no-one’s delight. Above all there is a lack of stakes at play in this universe, where receiving a bullet to the head is easily solved via a magical super-spy gel. Even James Bond would scoff at such an absurd easy fix.

Egerton returns to the role that made him a star, and once gain he shines as the lad super-agent of foul-mouth and dapper suit. Good too are Mark Strong and Colin Firth in their returning roles. High profile additions Halle Berry, Channing Tatum and Jeff Bridges feel like they are there for name recognition only. Meanwhile, Julianne Moore continues to prove that when it comes to genre fare, she is unbelievably bad.

Vaughn and Goldman have a knack for the controversial. Kingsman: The Golden Circle is no different, with the “War on Drugs” part of the central plotline, as villainous Poppy poisons the worlds illegal-drug supply rendering dope heads worldwide in a paralytic state. Only the President of the United States (Bruce Greenwood) can save them by making drugs legal in exchange for the antidote. Which, of course the President gleefully rejects. It’s all cliched, eye rolling stuff that plants itself in a murky middle ground, in which drugs are bad, yet criminalising their use is unjust.

It all becomes an underwhelming attempt at political messaging. Underwhelming, much like the film itself.