Argylle: Why did critics hate Henry Cavill and Dua Lipa’s film
Argylle: Why did critics hate Henry Cavill and Dua Lipa’s film, Matthew Vaugh’s new film has been met with a largely negative response, and it all points to a couple of key elements.
By Megan Sauer
After the pastiche of the spy genre that was Kingsman, Matthew Vaughn’s career has been baffling.
However, precisely because that film was a pleasant surprise, the idea of him making a satire on these types of stories did not seem so far-fetched.
That’s pretty much the purpose of Argylle: Secret Agent, the new film with Henry Cavill and Dua Lipa that has been battered by critics.
What is Argylle: Secret Agent about?
After publishing four successful spy novels, Ellie (Bryce Dallas Howard) faces a creative block.
It is then that she meets Aiden (Sam Rockwell), a real-life agent who explains to her that the strange veracity of her books has made her the target of a criminal group that fears being exposed by the fifth literary installment.
Suddenly, the world she thought she was a part of becomes much stranger than the one she conceived on the page.
Henry Cavill, who plays the titular character and the fictional protagonist of said novels, appears intermittently throughout the film, as hallucinations of Ellie.
Dua Lipa, for her part, is also part fiction and is the villain of the fourth book.
In part, it’s exactly the tumultuousness of the plot that has given critics reservations, but below we detail what they didn’t like about Argylle.
Why has Argylle’s film been so criticized?
Without spoiling surprises, there is undoubtedly an abuse of surprise twists.
In the last 30 minutes of the film, there is one after another and as Leslie Fleperin wrote in The Hollywood Reporter, this becomes an excess and tests patience: “a watered-down runtime that tests patience; cartoonish, stylized violence that is, almost literally, little more than smoke and mirrors.”
There is also the feeling that it is quite out of focus.
The film has touches of comedy, romance, and action. And although he tries to juggle everyone, he doesn’t always maintain his balance.
This is what Sophie Terakes said in FilmInk: “There’s romance, action, and plenty of big revelations, but Argylle is largely overblown and predictable.
For a film that advertises so much extravagance and intrigue, it ultimately offers very little to viewers.”
But is everything wrong with Argylle? No. The cast, from real to fictional characters, are credited with maintaining a certain charm and being responsible for avoiding completely disconnecting from the hectic story.
This is how Ricardo put it in Fotogramas:
“Bryce Dallas Howard is the irresistible protagonist of this crazy epic in which Sam Rockwell, dedicated as usual, guides us through a production that is as successful as it is insignificant, always accurate, but never outstanding and unable to offer anything memorable.”
Beyond that, there are those who did enjoy the criticism and use of commonplaces in spy movies to play.
And those who did not understand it as the application of a mere formula but as the dissection of one.
This is what Maggie Lovitt said on Collider:
“At its core, it’s a light-hearted spy game that draws on many of the soap opera tropes that cross over into the realm of espionage.
There’s a lot of talk about “silly fun” in Vaughn’s films, and they may be what they are, but Argylle tries to be clever in its execution.”
Is it Argylle: Secret Agent a misunderstood satire or fails to try to parody while paying homage and telling a spy story?
It will be up to each audience member to find their limit to the crazy action, absurd humor, and brutal twists. The film is now available in theaters.
