So I saw Kingsman: The Golden Circle. It was what so many bad sequels are: A considerable increase in the scale of the superficial elements that so many people responded to in the first one – in this case it was the inventive and slick action sequences; edgy, topical humour; a silly American villain to contrast against the gentlemanly & extraordinarily British Kingsman – instead of meaningfully expanding the emotionality of its predecessor. It was the second episode of a network television show, the one that reiterates what's what for those who missed the pilot episode. 

But director Matthew Vaughn's second sip of the Kingsman tea demonstrates that even when he's making something disappointing, he's still one hell of a showman. But there was one scene so flabbergasting, so sloppy, that I just couldn't believe it. To direct a film that remains entertaining and breezy in spite of a script that is such a remarkably witless Frankenstein of tired ideas takes a kind of supernatural focus and fanatical self-belief that defies my comprehension. Which makes this giant mistake even more baffling.

Spoilers for Kingsman: The Golden Circle ahead

So, some context. It's revealed pretty early on that our main Kingsman and Eggsy's mentor, Harry Hart, survived being shot point-blank in the eyeball by Samuel L. Jackson in the last film. Well, he was revived, but that makes it no less dumb. Anyway, Harry's lost his memory, and so has forgotten he was once a Kingsman. So Eggsy finds a way to successfully trigger Hart's memory. It's a key moment in the film; the fulcrum, you might say. It's played like a big deal: the music swells triumphantly and dramatically, it's exciting – the main badass gentleman is back, and not a moment too soon. Every intention displayed is to make this damn memorable, and to sum it up in one word: IMPORTANT.

That music that swells triumphantly and dramatically during this scene? It's the same track – the exact same track, Rage and Serenity it's titled – when Magneto successfully uses his powers to turn a giant satellite in X-Men First Class, a film which was also directed by Matthew Vaughn and scored by Henry Jackman.

As far as I can tell, they left the temp music in and simply just forgot to replace it with an original track that, presumably, actually jived with what was meant to be a cathartic scene. Either that or they simply recycled the track and hoped that nobody would notice, which, also is a big mistake. This was not a cheap movie to make. It passed by thousands of eyes probably a hundred times before it was sent to theatres worldwide. No one noticed. And if they did, they didn't do anything about it. I wonder if it's something that'll be corrected before it's released digitally and on blu ray. Or, as is Hollywood's want, they'll just leave it there because the flick made a bit of bank and no one kicked up that much of a fuss - except of course for me, as I apparently have the mental real estate and time to write up an article on it. I guess we'll see.

If you're not familiar with the practice of using temp music, check out this video by Tony Zhou. It's pretty cool and enlightening.

So, did any of you guys notice this mistake too?