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"Argylle": Was it the Biggest Disappointment of 2024?
Let's delve into 'Argylle,' the most anticipated espionage comedy of 2024! Directed by Matthew Vaughn and penned by Jason Fuchs, this film promises a unique blend of action, comedy, and espionage. With a star-studded cast including Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Rockwell, Bryan Cranston, and the iconic Samuel L. Jackson, expectations were high. However, despite the stellar lineup, 'Argylle' failed to secure a positive review from critics. Let's explore the reasons behind this unexpected outcome. Details below 👇
For those unfamiliar, the film is a spy-comedy revolving around Elly Conway.
Happiness for Elly is spending quiet evenings with her computer and her cat, Alfie. However, Elly's fictional spy hero, Argyll, suddenly comes to life, thrusting her into a race to travel the world and capture real criminals. As the boundary between the fictional world and reality becomes increasingly blurred, Elly's adventure unfolds relentlessly!
The surprising inability of renowned director Matthew Vaughn to win over critics this time has left everyone puzzled.
A significant figure in 21st-century action films with hits like Kick-Ass, X-Men: First Class, and the Kingsman series, Vaughn's ability to assemble a massive $200 million budget for Argylle, and the apparent squandering of most of that money, raises unexpected questions.
The spy film adapted from a novel should have been incredibly creative.
Theoretically, it should have been an incredibly creative film. A spy thriller author, targeted by an underground intelligence agency believing she possesses a kind of 'intuition' that allows her to see what's happening in the real spy world, is attacked. Now, various organizations are trying to convince Bryce Dallas Howard's Elly Conway character to write the next move for her hero (portrayed by Henry Cavill). So, they can learn the plans of their enemies and act accordingly. This scene not only reads like a real novel but also promises a spectacular spy adventure!
The film, joining the trend that began in the late nineties, is fortunately not a complete failure.
The idea of instantly writing events as they unfold has been done before. The horror genre was full of it towards the late nineties, with films like Wes Craven's New Nightmare, In the Mouth of Madness, and even scenes from Scream 3 contributing to it. For an action genre to spend such a substantial amount, it must be sure of the success, and fortunately, Argylle is not a total failure.
So, what are the reasons behind "Argylle" not being well-received?
The main issue with Argylle is Vaughn's camera work, not knowing when to stop. Action scenes drag on for too long, exhausting the audience to the point of despair. An early train fight scene sets the tone, with a few enjoyable moments and then refusing to simply stop. The film runs almost 2 hours and 20 minutes and could easily have been a good ten minutes shorter, but the story refuses to let go. It feels like insisting that what you're looking for is just around the next corner, like a father who insists that what you're seeking is just around the next bend before the kids in the backseat start screaming to go home.
While the film partly focuses on Argyll's character development, it falls short of capturing it.
In many scenes as the film progresses, real-world action becomes more absurd than the imaginary, fantastical world of Elle Conway's stories. Some scenes, especially one with colorful exploding heads reminiscent of the first film, appear to be done in a Kingsman style. While they will argue it's always intentional when they make a crossover film in the future, the film was designed to show Elle evolving from a shy introvert into an outgoing and talented individual.
Some action scenes cross boundaries, and character development gets lost at certain points.
The subsequent action scenes are so caricatured that they undermine the newly gained power; this woman can only be talented in a foolish, caricatured, unrealistic world, whereas the earlier scenes' more fitting moments truly show how she is. Facing dangers despite fear does not make a woman a superhero in a world without real threats; she becomes a superhero without any real danger, surpassing the laws of physics and reality, even transcending spy technology. Something that could have been an incredible combination of creative spy thriller and personal identity exploration becomes an excuse for 'great' things and 'magnificent' visuals. They should not overshadow your story, but rather go hand in hand with it.
The harsh critique from renowned critic Kieran Judge goes as follows:
'Argylle feels like an exercise in self-indulgence, vaguely entertaining in an undefined way. Ultimately, it thinks it's smarter than it actually is. The film ends with a serious Return of the King ending syndrome, and because it refuses to stop when the story should, a crucial turning point lasts nearly forty minutes, approximately twenty minutes after its end. Furthermore, a cat named Alfie exists in about 60% of the shots through computer animation alone, making it ten times more expensive and ten times worse than Godzilla Minus One. Perhaps if the producers had not given as much money to the film as to Godzilla Minus One but had allocated the $10-15 million given to it, it would have prompted them to think instead of seeing.'
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