10 Huge Movie Deaths That Totally Fell Flat

As sequels to great movies go, Kingsman: The Golden Circle is just a carnival of poor creative decisions, and Merlin's (Mark Strong) climactic sacrificial death sure didn't help.

When Eggsy (Taron Egerton) and Merlin arrive at villain Poppy's (Julianne Moore) lush hideout, Eggsy accidentally steps on a landmine, at which point Merlin decides to switch places with him, and then detonates the mine, obliterating himself and Poppy's surrounding goons.

Even Mark Strong's spirited rendition of "Take Me Home, Country Roads" in Merlin's final moments couldn't save this one from being a total flop.

In a movie that already pointlessly killed off another likeable hero, Roxy (Sophie Cookson), Merlin's death was a massive letdown. He was too good a character to waste on this nonsense.

And more to the point, given that this film established that death means nothing in the Kingsman franchise - what with Harry Hart (Colin Firth) being resurrected in highly convoluted fashion - why should we even take Merlin's apparent demise seriously?

What's stopping him showing up in a third Kingsman movie, if it ever happens, with cyborg legs?