Debutant directors Sagar Ambre and Pushkar Ojha's film offers an adrenaline-fueled ride through the skies. The setup is slow and bumpy, but once the plane is hijacked, the tension mounts quickly.
Despite a predictable storyline, the movie has a fair amount of exciting moments and twists and turns to keep you engaged. And Sidharth Malhotra expertly navigates the highs and lows of a determined soldier caught in the crossfires of duty and suspicion.
The story unfolds with Arun Katyal, a proud son determined to carry on the legacy of his father's (Ronit Roy) special task force, Yodha.
However, after failing at a critical mission, he is on board a hijacked flight under mysterious circumstances. All evidence points to him being on a revenge mission against the system that has taken everything from him.
Is Arun a ‘desh ka dushman,’ or the patriot like his father was? It all unravels in an action-packed thriller at 15,000 feet above the ground.
Sagar Ambre's screenplay keeps viewers engrossed, drawing them into the tense atmosphere of the aircraft, where the majority of the action unfolds.
While the mid-air stunts are thrilling, the film suffers from predictability and clichéd plot twists, lacking depth in exploring themes of courage and patriotism.
However, the film is well-edited, so it stays the course and never feels stretched. There is also subtle humour peppered through the narrative.
There are some heavy-duty dialogues like “Main rahu na rahu, desh rahega," but the lighter moments in the screenplay balance that out.
The music is average, barring Ammy Virk and B Praak's reprised version ‘Qismat Badal Di.’ The background score blends well with the genre.
After the reel-life portrayal of the war hero Vikram Batra in Shershaah, Sidharth returns as commando Arun Katyal in Yodha, showcasing his competence as an action hero.
The movie majorly rests on his shoulders. Raashii Khanna pulls off the part of playing Arun's love interest with ease. Disha Patani plays a pivotal role as an air hostess caught amid the hostage drama.
Tanuj Virwani, another commando of the special task force, makes his presence felt in his limited role. Sunny Hinduja pulls off his role with confidence.
All said, Yodha’s action is thrilling, but it does not really take your imagination to the flight.
Argylle is directed by Matthew Vaughn and it stars Bryce Dallas Howard as Elly Conway, a novelist whose series of spy novels mysteriously mirror real world events, to the point of seemingly predicting the future.
Elly finds herself partnering with Sam Rockwell’s character Aidan, a real life spy whose goal is to protect her from a nefarious organization that’s hellbent on capturing her and utilizing her apparent abilities to write the future. The movie also features an ensemble cast including Henry Cavill, Bryan Cranston, Catherine O’Hara, John Cena, Ariana Debose, Dua Lipa, Sofia Bouttella, and Samuel L. Jackson.
As a director, Mattheew Vaughn has made his share of films that I’ve really enjoyed. I recently rewatched Kingsman: The Secret Service and had a fun time watching, as has been the case with previous movies such as Kick-Ass and X-Men: First Class. But he’s recently made some duds, them basically being the following Kingsman films.
But that being said, I was still intrigued by this movie’s trailers. If for nothing else, it looked like it could be a fun spy comedy that knows it’s a fun spy comedy without taking itself too seriously. Vaughn has his own distinct style and I saw this movie hoping that he could recapture the same charm that’s been lacking in some of his more recent entries.
Contrary to what the trailers may show, Bryce Dallas Howard and Sam Rockwell are the leads in this movie and they’re both perfectly serviceable. As characters on their own, they each have their own quirks and personalities that do just enough to make the movie watchable, but the odd thing is the lack of real chemistry that they share together.
When it’s time for them to form a relationship, sparks don’t fly and the issue is that they’re not given good material to work with. It’s just a lot of exposition dumps from Rockwell and the typical fish out of water scenario for a seemingly bumbling Howard and it’s the type of relationship that’s been done to death. This movie adds nothing new to that type of dynamic.
I wish I could say that there were other supporting roles that help the movie, but that’s not the case. Bryan Cranston plays the typical evil government agent who has nothing to do outside of just barking orders and mean-mugging a computer screen and Samuel L. Jackson doesn’t even show up until roughly the halfway point of the film, despite the marketing making him seem like a major player.
That could be said for quite a few actors in this loaded cast. The likes of Cavill, Cena, Lipa, and Debose are basically nothing more than cameos, which is a bummer since a majority of these actors make the most of their screentime.
Cena and Dua Lipa in particular almost steal the show with their limited roles and I found myself suprisingly wishing that they were the two main characters. And even if Cavill and Debose are trying to add in some charm to their brief appearances, it becomes abundantly clear that these are two talented performers who desperately need new agents.
I also reached a point where I was waiting for that damn cat to have some relevance. You know that ugly CGI cat that’s been featured so prominently in the marketing? It turns out that it’s in the movie about as much as Henry Cavill and it doesn’t have anything to offer outside of just being a cat.
There’s an attempt at some type of set up with Sam Rockwell’s character being allergic to it, but that disappears as quickly as it’s brought up.
Speaking of ugly CGI, this movie certainly has plenty of that. Prior Vaughn films have had their share of questionable CGI and one could argue that it’s part of the charm depending on the film, but here there’s no excuse. With a budget of $200 million, it’s baffling the amount of obvious green screen and horrible CGI that’s present.
CGI actors are very apparent in some of the action scenes and there’s even one moment featuring Henry Cavill driving a car that looks like it’s straight out of any sitcom scene where the actors are very obviously driving in front of a green screen with a fake looking background for scenery.
But in those, there’s the excuse of it being a low-budget sitcom. Here, it’s $200 million. We’ve even seen recent examples in The Creator and Godzilla Minus One that blockbuster films can have relatively small budgets and make the most of their budgets with some really great CGI. Not the case with Argylle.
From a writing standpoint, I’m borderline convinced that this is a movie that’s the result of experimentation with AI writing a film. It really feels like the studio had ChatGPT write a spy movie and the result was it just regurgitating not only rehashed spy tropes, but also various plot twists that have come from better spy films.
This whole movie’s second act completely inundates the audience with twist after twist after twist. Virtually all of them fail to leave an impression and on top of that, it’s just exhausting. I got mentally fatigued trying to keep up with all of the curve balls this movie was throwing my way and it was at this point that I became convinced that the studio was using AI.
There’s just no way that writer, Jason Fuchs, could’ve been so clueless as to not realize how tiresome all of these twists can be on an audience member, or so I like to think.
This movie also doesn’t wholly capitalize on just being a mindless, fun action flick. I already mentioned the bad CGI, but even the action’s internal logic can’t follow through in some scenes. For example, there’s one brief scene involving oil that had the potential to be a great action sequence and it actually starts out decently enough.
But the established stakes of what could happen in said sequence don’t follow through and what we end up with is an action scene with a gaping plot hole that any competent filmmaker should’ve picked up on. The general poor writing is the big issue with the action when it’s not really terrible CGI.
I’m also at a point where I’m just sick of every movie in Hollywood trying to be franchised and this movie has that. I won’t spoil anything here, but this movie has the gall to try and set something up in a mid-credits scene and that was the final nail in the coffin for me and this movie. I basically just washed my hands with this movie and said “No, fuck this, I’m out.”
All in all, I’m very obviously not a fan of Argylle. When all is said and done, it’s just a convoluted, ugly-looking, and overlong slog to sit through. Somewhere in a different universe, there’s probably a better version of this movie, one that has roughly 30 minutes removed from its bloated 2 hour and 19 minute runtime. I’m worried that we’re past Matthew Vaughn’s prime as a filmmaker and if this movie has the same energy and style of his planned future films, then all I can say is this: Yikes.
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