Argylle: Henry Cavill’s New $200M Disappointment; Why Was It Such A Disaster?

Introduction

Vaughn’s newest spy thriller, Argylle, starring Henry Cavill proved to be a box office disaster despite being a high budget project. The film was screened at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square in London on January 24. It failed to garner enough interest with moviegoers and became an official flop, despite its promising promotions during the beginning of pf 2024. Although Vaughn is a well rehearsed expert in action thrillers, having directed the likes of Kick-Ass and The Kingsmen franchise, the film made $18 million earnings in ticket sales and $35.5 million in total during the opening week, after having a $20 million budget.

The star studded cast also consisted of film stars Bryce Dallas Howard as Elly Conway, an author who discovers that the fiction she writes in her spy novels exists in real life. It also included Dua Lipa and John Cena, Bryan Cranston, Catherine O’Hara, Ariana DeBose and Samuel L. Jackson, among others.

Despite having potential, it received terrible rotten tomato ratings and completely bombed with the critics. Cavill’s exit from the role of Superman became a blow to his career, as he needed a big film to prove himself outside of the DCEU. The failure of Argylle adds fuel to the criticism that Cavill is not the star he and his fans think he is, putting even more pressure on a brand new franchise. Argylle, unfortunately, has put a stain on both Vaughn and Cavill’s resumes.

Why Did Argylle Fail So Dismally?

The movie’s runtime had been 2 hours and 20 minutes, which is usually pretty standard for most Hollywood action thrillers. However, its whimsical premise demanded a shorter, more crisp framework to hold the audience’s attention. It is quite possible that when the audience saw the runtime, they were less eager to go. 

An Out Of Worldly Premise

Many viewers found themselves unable to connect with the whimsy of the narrative that Vaughn wished to portray, ending in most of it going over their heads. They felt awful by the usual strange and campy elements of his films, not being able to relate to any of it and being unsure of what to expect and when. This may have encouraged many to not watch Argylle.

Although Vaughn’s films are known, and sometimes lauded, for their distinctive atmospheres and strange campiness, there is no guarantee that this is always going to work for every one of his films.

Building An Unknown Franchise From Scratch

Apple was looking to break into the theatre market through their Apple TV platform, and couldn’t have been happier to have secured the talents of Matthew, who gave us great films like X-Men: First Class and Kingsman: The Secret Service. However, they ignored Argylle’s poor script and Matthew’s diminished creative output, and gave the green light.

In a market oversaturated with spin-offs and sequels, as this material was brand new, with a quirky premise at its base, it proved to be a repellent to viewers. As the viewers were not familiar with the story, they willingly chose ignore it completely. This further diminished any possibilities or future dreams of Argylle would becoming a franchise later on.

Crushed By Critics

Critics disliked Argylle because of its over-long plot and its predictability. Though the film attempts to be fresh and exciting, it follows the same overdone old tropes of a classic spy thriller, boring one to death. Even the CGI and action scenes were below par in their quality. Ultimately, Argylle earned a 35% on Rotten Tomatoes via critics, along with its 71% audience score.

Some critics labelled it as ‘shoddy’, while others called the visual effects as ‘unconvincing’ and the screenplay as terribly written.

Various media outlets profusely criticized the film, saying

BBC

The problem is that the scenes featuring Elly and Aidan in the film’s real world are just as generic and cartoonish as the ones featuring Agent Argyle in Elly’s books. There is no contrast – no witty disparity between the far-fetched daydreams she has of the spy game, and how it actually is. In both realities, the effects look fake, the plotting is ludicrous, and the characters are unbelievable (Elly is never bothered by all the people being killed around her), so the premise comes to seem pointless. If the film’s fantasy is a cardboard copy of 007, and its reality is a cardboard copy of 007, why do we need both?

The Guardian

This could theoretically be a fun movie, but it is all so self-conscious and self-admiring, with key action sequences rendered null and void by being played on two levels, the imaginary and the real, so cancelling each other out. The thought of Argylle 2 and Argylle 3 is very dispiriting. The books might do better.

IGN

But the screenplay by Jason Fuchs fails to supply either of star with a single good line. The whole thing feels like an overlong first draft without any darlings to kill. Matthew Vaughn’s latest directorial effort doesn’t traffic in the same edgelord button-pushing as his Kingsman series, but as that relief fades, it becomes clear how much Argylle is recycling ideas and imagery from those (and other, better) movies.

Rolling Stone

You start to suspect it before you’ve even transitioned out of the first act, and it’s more or less confirmed by the time the big whoa moment shows up. The spoiler is: Argylle is a bad movie. A very, very bad movie.

The Failure Of Vaughn’s Last Film, The King’s Man

Vaughn’s last film, The King’s Man, was a prequel to his Kingsmen film franchise, and it performed better than Argylle, but not much more than that. The film earned $126 million on a $95-100 million budget. Therefore, it’s possible that The King’s Man’s poor performance made audiences uninterested in seeing Vaughn’s newest project.