Matthew Vaughn’s quirky action comedy Argylle has flopped at the box office and with many critics. But the Kingsman director can’t understand some of the harsh reactions
At the very beginning, Argylle by Matthew Vaughn (Kingsman: The Secret Service) was still being teased as a possible James Bond replacement with Henry Cavill (The Witcher). However, after the film was first released in cinemas and then on Apple TV+, it quickly became clear that we were dealing with a completely different movie. Cavill is just a supporting character with hardly any screentime, while Bryce Dallas Howard (Jurassic World) is at the center of the action as the book’s author.
Argylle has received a scathing reception from many critics, which Vaughn sometimes finds too harsh. In a new interview, he has now explained his view of things in more detail.
But no James Bond with Henry Cavill: Matthew Vaughn finds Argylle criticism too harsh in parts
In an interview with Empire, the director explains that Argylle was not intended to be a significant work for film history. But he can’t understand the sometimes extremely negative or even dismayed criticism:
[Argylle] is a fun, feel-good movie, or at least I thought it was a fun, feel-good movie. We obviously didn’t make Citizen Kane, but damn it, then the reviews came out and I was like, ‘Wait, what did I do to offend these people?’ They were venomous. I’m not saying the movie is perfect by any means, but I didn’t find it offensive. That surprised me.
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Since Argylle was primarily made as a streaming film for Apple TV+, the financial result is not so decisive. According to Box Office Mojo, the blockbuster only grossed just over 96 million dollars worldwide. A weak result, as Vaughn’s film is said to have devoured a budget of up to 200 million dollars.
Watch the German Argylle trailer here:
You can watch
Argylle at any time with the Apple TV+ streaming subscription. Whether the film will become a bigger franchise after the predominantly negative reception is questionable
