I went to see Argylle having not realised that it was directed by Matthew Vaughn (director of Kingsman) and having seen the trailer, meaning I went in with almost no expectations. It was able to pass those expectations and I found myself enjoying it. Looking back on it, I’m not entirely sure why, as the whole point of the film is that it’s nonsense and cliché. I feel like the lack of expectations, and embracing that it was going to be all over the place allowed me to enjoy the moments that were good. I enjoyed the fight scene on the train and the one with the “ice skates” despite how dumb it was (the one with smoke was interesting but was a little extra in a direction that I couldn’t accept).
For the performances of Bryce Dallas Howard (which I can only recall Jurassic World) it was my favourite of them, I enjoyed Sam Rockwell’s character, unfortunately PG-13 did not allow Bryan Cranston to go full Heisenberg which I was disappointed about but not all that surprised. It is a shame that Henry Cavill is in such a limited amount of the film and that a CGI cat has a larger part in the film despite being pointless.
If you can give yourself over to a film full of cliché and contrivances, allow yourself to see past that and go in with low expectations, this film can be enjoyable; it’s still not great, but it’s fine/decent.
Score:
Enjoyment: 6.8/10
Critically: 6.4/10