By Lucas Castillo ’25
NO SPOILERS – Watch this movie blind, trust me.
This film feels like it is two movies in one, and the radical and winding change can be a bit disorienting to a casual viewer, but as I have said, it’s worth experiencing it for yourself. This film has so many twists and turns and winding complexities that it leaves you floored at every major turn. If you can, watch this movie blind, or spoiler free, as diving deep into the rabbit hole and feeling the intense sense of anticipation is necessary to get the full Argylle experience.
The action was creative and gave way to some funny and intense moments, but some of the absurdity of the situations and action scenes did take me out of the film a bit. However, I did enjoy the bizarre circumstances and laughably absurd action set-pieces for the sole reason that they were a riot. Beside the color bomb fight, which, in my opinion, went too far, many of the action scenes toward the end perfectly balanced absurd situations and circumstances with intense action. This balance was sorely aided by the fact that the movie had already leaped through so many logical hoops to get us to this point, that the audience would most likely just embrace whatever new ridiculous hurdle came flying their way.
Despite the fact that there is very little depth to any of these characters, and that any growth gets buried under the immense weight of the plot, the acting was really good all across the board. Bryce Dallas Howard and Sam Rockwell were clear standouts above the rest. Henry Cavill, John Cena, Ariana DeBose, and Dua Lipa were given very little screen time, unsurprisingly, but also did a good job with what they were given. Besides the Argylle story moments, Henry Cavill had only gotten a few more scenes as a voice in Elly’s head and Ariana DeBose’s character only became important at the very end, when the movie was practically over. Ironically, Elly’s mom had more plot relevance then all of them. Samuel Jackson played Samuel Jackson, and the villain that Bryan Cranston played was fairly menacing for a good forty minutes, until about the second act when the plot required that he become grossly incompetent. I also have a bone to pick with the poster of the film and the fact that the main characters, Elly and Adrian, Bryce Dallas Howard and Sam Rockwell, are playing second fiddle to Henry Cavill and Dua Lipa’s characters, who both have a collective screen time of about twenty five minutes! What kind of age do we live where the main characters of a film are being overshadowed on their own posters by bigger stars for the sole purpose of selling tickets!
The critics have torn this movie to shreds, to my dismay, and I, with this platform that I have available to me, would like to defend this fun and enthralling film for everyone who has a life and only watches movies casually as I do.
In all fairness, Argylle does not attempt to have any in-depth themes; it does not attempt to have any gripping character moments; heck, it doesn’t even attempt anything even resembling a character arc, until the third act; but I don’t think that’s the point. This film is a rollercoaster, a theme park ride; a film designed to raise the audience’s blood pressure with suspense and amuse viewers with hilarity, and, as far as I’m concerned, it does a pretty good job at both engaging and enthralling the audience with electric action and fun and entertaining characters, as a good thriller should. Therefore, in my personal and all but factual opinion, I’d give Argylle a 7.5 out of 10; if you have two hours to burn, I would highly recommend it.
