The new spy action comedy, Argylle, started as a thrilling watch full of twists and turns, but took an unexpected and disappointing turn half way through.
Elly Conway, played by Bryce Dallas Howard, is a reclusive author who writes a series of best-selling espionage novels. With her best friend being her cat and a quiet life on a lake, her fictional novels about secret Agent Argylle and his spy missions shockingly become a part of her real life.
The cast was a fun line-up, starring Henry Cavill as agent Argylle as well as Dua Lipa, Sam Rockwell, John Cena, and Ariana DeBose. The actors played their spy roles well, but Howard and Rockwell were definitely the stars of the movie and their chemistry was the most entertaining to watch.
Going into the movie, I knew nothing about it other than watching the trailer, which did a good job at not giving away any of the big twists and turns, so I had no expectations of what could come.
The beginning of the movie began immediately as action-packed, and then transitioned to show Conway writing, revealing her character as an author and the action sequence the audience just witnessed as a scene from her book. I thought this was creative and an interesting way to start the movie; initially it had me hooked.
At the start, it was a good mix of action and comedy and seemed to be headed in a good direction with some build up as Conway’s fictional spy stories quickly and surprisingly became a real part of her life.
The cat tagging along was a cute bit and demonstrated Conway’s quiet and withdrawn lifestyle, but toward the end of the movie, the cat became one of the only things I cared about.
As twists began, they were exciting, but soon seemed to become silly and only dragging the movie on.
The second half of the movie seemed to get worse and worse as the CGI was done poorly, and the scenes were overdone and felt foolish. It became way too convoluted with double double agents and the especially hard to watch “ice-skating” scene. To avoid any spoilers, one of the final fight scenes was more of an embarrassing dance than an intense action moment. I felt It got exceedingly moronic and I was no longer as invested in it as I was in the beginning.
Every time I thought the movie was wrapping up and coming to an end, it just kept on going and felt forced. I think a cliff hanger would have been a better ending, and would not have created an uproar because it is a spy movie.
From the start, the movie was a little corny but nothing horrendous. It was goofy and still had the thrill element, but the entire second half became unbearingly corny.
I really did begin to cringe as every scene was super overdone and exaggerated, which made the movie go downhill so fast. None of the scenes needed to be done so suddenly or dramatically.
At one point, I did feel they were trying to make it look how it would be if you were reading Conway’s book, but it got to the point where I wish I picked a different movie to go see.
The whole ending dissatisfied me as it got super outlandish and became too intricate.
If going with younger kids, this movie will most likely be an overall fun watch and worth it, but personally I would not recommend spending the money and time on it. It’s a little over two hours which did not phase me at first, thinking it must have a good plot, but I found I was very wrong. I wish it was a lot shorter.
The overall concept was intriguing but the movie as a whole ended up being executed poorly which was really disappointing since it had great potential.