Recently, Apple TV+ has been teaming up with the legacy studios on films that are so expensive they don’t make sense as a solo outing: Killers of the Flower Moon, Napoleon, and now Argylle. With a massive ensemble of stars and a talented action director in Matthew Vaughn, the spy thriller Argylle has all the makings of a smash hit. Unfortunately, conventional screenwriting and shockingly low-quality visuals prevent the film from being any more than passingly entertaining.
Argylle follows a reclusive writer who spends her days writing popular spy novels as she is swept up in an adventure like the ones she has written when a secret agent reveals that her story is beginning to resemble real-life events in international espionage. It’s essentially Romancing the Stone by way of James Bond — an incredibly fun premise — but the results are decidedly mixed.
From the trailer alone, the online community was already levying charges against Argylle for poor CGI because of a less-than-impressively animated cat. Well, in context, the cat looks a lot better than some of the other parts of the film. The opening sequence has green screen effects that lend it the visual quality of N64 graphics, and the final sequence, while intriguing in concept, falls victim to the same ugliness in execution.
Argylle is enjoyable but too predictable
When Vaughn is allowed to do his thing with the action, Argylle is quite fun. The gunfights and fistfights are shot and edited in Vaughn’s characteristically kinetic way — there just aren’t enough of them. Fuchs really limits Vaughn here, as the massive scale of the globe-trotting espionage plot doesn’t lend itself frequently to the director’s gritty but stylized style of combat. The other limitation is the film’s PG-13 rating, although Vaughn manages to make the action mostly exciting nonetheless.
It is relentlessly clear from the film (and the press tour) that the creators of Argylle hope this will kick off a new franchise. Unfortunately, the world-building and characters are just not there for this to be the next big IP. As an homage to a particular genre, its in-world institutions feel overly familiar — generic even. Although it’s fun as a standalone, there’s not enough here for this world to be worth revisiting.
The heart and soul of Argylle are the performances by Bryce Dallas Howard and Sam Rockwell. Both are incredibly charming in their roles, with Howard showing unexpected range throughout her arc and Rockwell getting plenty of opportunities to let his sense of humor shine. Their chemistry is also electric, providing an intriguing spin on the “Bond Girl” formula of the films this was designed to pay homage to.
As for the supporting cast, many of them feel somewhat wasted. Bryan Cranston is the only other name who makes much of an impact, playing his role in a way that is villainously fun to watch. But many of the more recognizable faces — including Henry Cavill, John Cena, Dua Lipa, and Ariana DeBose — don’t get much screen time simply because of the nature of the story.
The real mystery of Argylle is not who the real Agent Argylle is — that’s a twist so generic and plainly telegraphed that you will think there’s something more (there’s not); instead, the mystery is where the $200 million budget of the film went. The biggest A-list stars couldn’t have been on set for more than a week, and the visuals definitely don’t reflect blockbuster caliber. If this were made for a more modest budget, it would be really good, but considering the carte blanche Vaughn and co. were given, one can’t help but feel a bit of disappointment.
Argylle hits theaters on February 2.
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Rating: 7/10
