Argylle evaluate – The worst film in ages cruelly deceives Henry Cavill followers | Films | Entertainment | EUROtoday

Matthew Vaughn has made some improbable motion blockbusters through the years, from Kick-Ass and X-Men: First Class to the Kingsman films.

So when the director introduced one other spy caper starring Henry Cavill – bagging the A-lister earlier than the James Bond producers, as he put it – we had been initially very excited.

An all-star forged was introduced for Argylle together with Dua Lipa, Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Rockwell, Bryan Cranston, John Cena, Samuel L Jackson, Ariana DeBose and extra.

It quickly grew to become obvious that the movie was to be based mostly on debut novelist Elly Conway’s spy thriller of the identical identify, promising a globetrotting journey involving a “luxurious prepare dashing in the direction of Moscow” and “a Nazi hoard entombed in the remote mountains of South-West Poland”.

But then came the first trailer for the movie adaptation and suddenly our anticipation was somewhat squashed.

It turned out the blockbuster was taking a meta spin, with the movie actually following fictional Argylle novel author Conway (Howard), who discovered that her books reflect the real-life world of espionage.

It’s not long before Rockwell’s actual spook Aidan drags the writer and her cat (owned by Vaughn’s wife Claudia Schiffer) on an adventure to discover the truth; one in which we were still hoping would have big roles for the other major stars. Tragically this was not the case at all.

Argylle’s trailer and poster turned out to be pure clickbait. Cavill and Dua Lipa are front and centre of the latter and alongside John Cena and Ariana DeBose are only in the movie for a couple of scenes. This is mostly in the film’s opening and was akin to the cameos at the start of Austin Powers’ Goldmember.

Instead what we get is a sub-par, should-have-been-straight-to-streaming-at-best disappointment. Howard and Rockwell’s characters amble off on an incredibly boring quest that made the audience member next to me literally decide to take a nap rather than engage with the utter garbage in front of our eyes.

Of course, there’s plenty of over-the-top action, which is one of Vaughn’s signatures, but it’s tonally completely off given the real-world setting. Lowlights include the silly CGI cat scratching a villain’s face, Conway ice skating on spilt oil as she takes out baddies and the two leads dancing to “our track” – which tastelessly ended up being the simply okay AI-aided John Lennon Beatles monitor Now and Then, launched just a few months in the past.

The solely redeeming function of being robbed of virtually two and half hours of our lives we’ll by no means get again was the promise on the finish of what audiences had been enthusiastic about within the first place.

That’s proper, after Cavill followers had been cruelly tricked into watching this nonsense, there’s a promise that an precise adaptation of the Argylle novel (which is out now) is within the works. And to be sincere, after what we’ve simply witnessed we’re not even certain if we wish it anymore.

The most painful factor about this garbage is that Vaughn is often sensible at making tongue-in-cheek action-packed spy films.

But having chosen this narrative route (with all its overdone twists and turns impressed by different well-established spook tales) has been a colossal waste of his and the A-list forged’s expertise. An abysmal disappointment.

Argylle hits UK cinemas on February 2 and can stream on Apple TV+ at a later date.