Argylle Review: An Overly Twisty CGI Mess

Ken Jones, OnScreen Blog Chief Film Critic

For me, there’s always a bit of trepidation when it comes to going to the movie theater to see new releases in January and February. The beginning of the year is notorious for studios dumping bad movies that can be easily overshadowed by awards season movies getting buzz.

Sadly, this appears to be the case with the expensive Apple Original Films and Universal release, director Matthew Vaughn’s Argylle.

Bryce Dallas Howard leads a loaded cast list as Elly Conway, a writer of the popular book series about international spy Agent Argylle (Henry Cavill) and his sidekick Wyatt (John Cena). In her latest novel, they are betrayed by their agency, and he seeks a way to bring them down. As it turns out, Elly’s book series actually imitates real life, as she finds out after encountering rogue agent Aidan Wylde (Sam Rockwell) while on a train to visit her mother (Catherina O’Hara). Elly quickly finds herself on the run with Aidan with Division, his former agency, headed by Bryan Cranston’s Ritter, hot on their heels.

The premise of the movie seems almost laughable on its head that a fictional book series would be dictating real-world events without there being an element of fantasy to the story, so thankfully, it turns out that there is a twist that turns the plot on its head eventually.

The movie runs into trouble because it is not content with that twist, and the entire film is a series of twists, almost all of which are ridiculous and outlandish, trying to outdo the previous plot twist. And nearly every twist is earmarked, so anyone with even a passable knowledge of spy movies will see these twists coming and be unimpressed by them.

For example, at one point, with Elly in London and unsure who she can trust, she turns to her mother, who flies out with Elly’s father. When she arrives at the hotel they are staying at, and her mother tells her that her father is down the hall getting ice, it is readily apparent, before the hotel door even opens, who will be revealed to be her father.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a good, twisting yarn of a story, especially a spy one that keeps me on my toes, but done too cavalierly, they reach a point of diminishing returns, and they become tired and gimmicky, indicative of a weak overall story that needs to rely so heavily on a gimmick to get across the finish line.

There are some good action sequences in the film. I enjoyed the first fight on the train where Elly is watching Aidan fend off a few waves of goons, and she keeps hallucinating that it is her character Argylle fighting instead of Aidan, who looks a little schlubby with long hair and a beard instead of the suave superspy that is Argylle in her novels. The juxtaposition of Rockwell and Cavill in those moments works well.

But there are also some that make you groan. Toward the end of the movie, a fight shrouded in multi-colored smoke is choreographed like a dance between two characters using infrared goggles to take out a swarm of goons. In another scene, a character MacGuyvers a pair of skates and takes out many bad guys slipping and sliding everywhere. Some action movies have used moments like this that subvert genre expectations to great effect and a lot of laughs, but these moments fall flat here.

Argylle has all the earmarks of a globetrotting spy movie, with scenes taking place in London, France, Greece, and other European locales, though also with what looks like many greenscreen stand-ins.

There is some bad CGI here, too, where some moments look obviously fake. I believe this also includes Elly’s cat, Alfie; if there was an actual real cat, there are at least moments where they used a CGI cat, and they stand out like a sore thumb.

All of this is stunning, considering the budget for this movie was north of $200 million.

Sam Rockwell is an actor I routinely enjoy, and his unique kind of charm and comedy fits in well with Matthew Vaughn’s sensibilities based on his previous films. It is easy to see him being a part of the cast of Kick-Ass or The Kingsman.

Howard and Rockwell have some decent chemistry as co-leads early on, leaning into the mismatched nature of their characters. Elly is apprehensive about almost everything outside of writing, while Aidan almost flies by the seat of his pants.

Rockwell and Howard are having fun, and some fleeting moments are entertaining. Still, it is not enough to save this movie from the overabundance of CGI and the overreliance on twists and turns that lead to lackluster reveals.

Sadly, Argylle is exactly what you would expect from an early February release.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars